Secrets of the People
by TheDirtyTruth
Summary: In Nina's second year, twins Kayla and Harry Reagan arrive at Anubis House on scholarship. Once there they unknowingly stir up trouble and untold emotions within their new housemates, and then become tangled in the mystery itself. Will they survive the year? Fabina/Peddie/Amfie/Mickara and Jerome/OC and maybe some OC/OC. Rating may change.
1. Being Spanish

"…Great."

"Brilliant."

We sighed as we were dropped off by the cab driver in front of an old, dusty and large looking building.

_Anubis House _

The yellowing sign read.

We looked at each other at the same time and raised our eyebrows.

"Maybe we should go hide in the forest." Harry suggested.

"Yeah, this place is giving me the creeps _already_." I replied, and shuddered for effect.

Harry heaved a heavy sigh and grabbed the handles of his two very large suitcases, with myself doing the same, and we brought them to the large door of Anubis House.

"Maybe we should pretend to be Spanish exchange students." I smirked.

"That would be funny." Harry replied, scratching the back of his neck.

"But they might think we are actually from Spain." I added as an afterthought. It was true. Me and Harry both spoke fluent Spanish, French, German, Italian, Greek, Russian, Portuguese, and some Mandarin. Oh, and of course, English.

"Ugh." I pulled a face as I lifted the black polished and rusty knocker. A bubbly looking woman opened the door, and her face brightened as she saw us tall twins standing on the front step.

"You must be the Reagans!" She exclaimed.

Harry nodded a bit awkwardly.

"Come in! Come in!" She chattered, and closed the door behind us as we wondered in.

The room we walked into was fairly big, with an oak staircase to the right with a hallway ahead, and with a door to the left, which must be to the front room.

"Your housemates are dying to meet you!" The woman shrieked enthusiastically. "I'm Trudy, your housemother." She added.

"Housemother?" I enquired, a bit confused.

"I look after you all!" Trudy answered.

"What a job…" Harry mumbled, looking to the side. Apparently Trudy didn't hear, as she led Harry and me into the front room, where we found ourselves facing a number of tired-looking adolescents.

"Everybody, these are your new housemates, Kayla and Harry!" Trudy told the teenagers.

"Hey." Everybody chorused rather grimly.

"Hola." Harry spoke.

I did an awkward little snort that earned a few strange looks from my new housemates.

"Are you Spanish then?" A dark haired girl asked us.

"Si. Vivimos en Espana, no hablamos ingles."

"What?" A darker skinned boy asked.

"We-no-speak-English." Harry pretended to stutter. I had to disguise my laughter by coughing.

"Oh."

Trudy looked thoroughly confused in the doorway, but when Harry winked at her she caught on.

"Yes, Harry and Kayla are from Malaga in Spain, and came here on an exchange programme." Trudy lied to the teens. "So you lot are going to have to help them with learning English." She finished, smiling at her accomplishment.

"Alright." A nerdy looking boy replied. "Does anyone here take Spanish?" He asked the teens around him. Everybody shook their heads.

"My… name… is… Fabian." The boy told us, exaggerating his gestures. Me and Harry smirked, and looked at each other. This was going to be fun.

" Hola Fabian! Me llamo Harry, se llama Kayla. Estamos aquí con beca, y so muy agradable conocerte todos. Inglaterra esta muy fria, y el vuelo agui era muy largo, yo y mi Hermana esta muy cansados. ¿Puede mostrar nosotros a nuestras habitaciones por favour, si no es mucha molestia?" Harry spoke very fluently and _very _quickly. I translated this in my head as Harry was talking.

_"Hello Fabian! My name is Harry, and her name is Kayla. We are here on scholarship, and it is very nice to meet you all. England is very cold, and the flight here was very long, and me and my sister are very tired. Can you show us to our room, if it isn't too much trouble?"_

"Um…"

"Uh…"

"What did he say?"

The teens were thoroughly confused after Harry had spoken. Trudy could just about hold back her smile, and Harry looked mighty pleased with himself. I then decided to test my own linguistic skills.

"Lo siento mi hermano, creo que ha olvidado que usted no puede entender que nos. su muy divertido en realidad, como nos podemos insultar y costumbre incluso saberlo." I told the teenagers.

Harry also smirked at my remarks as he translated it in his head.

_"Sorry about my brother, he seems to have forgotten that you can't understand us. It's very funny actually, as we can insult you and you won't even know it."_

Again, the adolescents were silent as they tried to pick out any words they recognised.

"I think she said something about a brother…" A tanned girl with dark hair deduced.

All the while when the group of teenagers were arguing, a very tall boy with blue eyes and dirty blonde hair was looking very intently at me and Harry. I think he was sensed something about us, and my suspicions were correct.

"No eres espanol." He spoke plainly. Well, he had learnt some Spanish online when he went for a short holiday to the Canary Islands.

"Si." I answered, and sneaked a wink at him.

"Me llamo Jerome." Jerome told me and Harry.

Me and Harry nodded.

"What did you say, Jerome?" A blonde boy with a thick American accent asked him.

"Just told them my name."

"You speak Spanish?"

"Not really."

"Did you catch anything they said?"

"Something about England being cold… need to be shown to their rooms… blah blah blah." Jerome explained.

"Really?"

"I think so."

"I thought she said something about a pineapple." The blonde girl smiled.

With this comment Jerome, I and Harry promptly burst into fits of laughter.

"What's so funny? I thought they couldn't understand English." Fabian pompously motioned towards the twins. Me and Harry looked at each other, and then at Jerome.

"They're not actually Spanish." Jerome laughed, much to the stunned looks of his friends.

"They're not…"

"They lied!"

"Yeah, we're not Spanish. We're British, but we live in New York." Harry explained through laughs.

"We thought it would be funny if we messed with you." I giggled.

"It's so not funny!" Fabian shouted, embarrassed after the way he explained his name to people he thought were Spanish and who actually weren't.

"Ugh!"

"I can't believe it!" Many of the girls complained. But the darker skinned boy was also laughing.

"Well played." He told me and Harry and clapped slowly in exaggeration. Most of the teenagers were annoyed with the way we had played them, and it looked like they weren't forgiving us anytime soon.

"I'm Alfie; a fellow prankster." The boy told us.

"Good to know." Harry extended his hand and Alfie shook it.

"You're really tall." The blonde girl examined, who was now brushing her hair with a bejewelled hairbrush. She seems a little ditzy to me.

"Uh, I know." Harry awkwardly smiled. He was around the same height as Jerome, and I'm only three inches shorter than him.

"So are you." The blonde girl pointed to me.

"Yeah." I replied.

"I'm Amber." She told us.

"Nice to meet you." I lied. Truthfully, I just want to go home. I don't want to spend a whole year here stuck inside with some snooty rich kids.

"Alright then, Kayla, you will be rooming with Nina and Patricia. Harry, you will be rooming with Jerome and Alfie." Trudy told us, and then rushed to the kitchen.

"Is that the school uniform?" I asked everyone.

"Um, yeah."

"Shit." I muttered. A few girls gasped. "What?"

"Nothing. But… don't you like the uniform?" Amber asked.

I was about to reply when Harry butted in.

"No, no she doesn't. I mean skirts? She hates them. The last time I saw her in a skirt was in first school." Harry explained. I laughed at Harry's honesty.

"This is going to be a great year." I said sarcastically through gritted teeth.

"Nina and Jerome, why don't you show Kayla and Harry to their new rooms." Trudy piped up from the kitchen.

"Okay." A girl who must be Nina stood up. She took one of my suitcases and almost immediately dropped it. "Oh my god! That's so heavy!" She exclaimed in an American accent. I frowned and picked it up easily. "Oh…" She murmured. I then picked up my other suitcase, which was even heavier, and gestured for Nina to show me where to go.

Jerome then picked up one of Harry's cases (with some difficulty) and led Harry to the staircase outside. Nina tried to make conversation while me, Jerome and Harry were struggling slightly with our cases.

"So, you live in New York?" She asked.

"Yep." I huffed.

"Is it nice there?"

"414 homicides last year. Which is the lowest for more than four decades." Harry sighed, banging his foot on the corner of a step.

"Lovely." Jerome laughed.

Harry and Jerome reached their room, and when they opened the door I could see that the floor was covered in dirty laundry and numerous other items. Harry was going to fit in nicely. After some more heaving of suitcases me and Nina reached her room. One corner was full of average teenage girl stuff (which I reckon is Nina's part of the room), and another was rather gothic, which I guessed was Patricia's part of the room. My space was plain and empty, and I made a mental note to myself to try and fit as many of my posters as I could on the wall.

"Nice." I truthfully told Nina.

"Good. I'll leave you to unpack." She beamed, and left the room.

I wandered over to my bed, examining the walls and possessions left on desks by the other girls. On Nina's side I could see a few pictured of herself and Fabian, so they must be an item. On Patricia's side there was a picture of herself and that American guy, so they must be an item too.

Great.

All the housemates are dating each other.

This is going to be some year.


	2. Comics and Zombies

I unpacked my clothes quickly, knowing Harry wouldn't take very long. Boys just threw their clothes into any empty drawer, but we girls have to fold and organise our clothes in a humane way. After unpacking almost all my clothes I took out all of my possessions, including jewellery, makeup, electricals, my darling games consoles, DVD's, books, comics, video games and much more. There was an impatient knock on the door.

"You can come in Harry." I called, not even turning around from unpacking my 'Violent Movies' collection.

"It isn't Harry." A voice answered from the other side of the door. I frowned.

"Come in, anyway." I dismissed.

The door opened, and in walked Jerome.

"Oh! Jerome!"

"What? You don't like me?" He faked being hurt. I laughed.

"No, I just expected it to be Harry."

Jerome nodded and walked over to my bed and looked at the shelf above the headboard which was filled with my collection of various comics.

"Ah. The Reagans seem to have a vast collection." He murmured, fingering the spines. He pulled out the first Walking Dead comic, lay down on my bed and started reading it. I sighed and started unpacking again.

"Enjoying it?" I asked after a few minutes of silence.

"It's amazing." He sighed. "How many are there?" He enquired.

"Seventeen. The next one is coming out in July." I replied. I sighed in relief that I only needed to unpack a pile of clothes at the bottom of my last suitcases. But then I realised it was my underwear.

This was going to be _awkward._

I was about to kick Jerome out when Nina wandered in, obviously thinking I needed help.

"Wow." She whispered after looking at my wall plastered in posters. Everything I liked was represented on my wall, The Walking Dead, Marvel, DC Comics, David & Goliath and loads more, including memes I had printed off the internet and just pictures I had found funny. Nina then looked over at Jerome, who was fully engrossed in the gore and violence of 'Days Gone Bye', the first comic of the series.

I showed her the underwear in my hands, and I then pointed towards Jerome on my bed. Nina nodded. She was opening her mouth to say something when Jerome spoke up.

"You can unpack your underwear you know. I really don't mind." He didn't even look up from reading.

I sighed in defeat and shuffled over to my chest of drawers, and stuffed all the items of clothing into the top one. I swore I could see out of the corner of my eye that Jerome was looking at me, but when I turned around his eyes flashed back to his comic. Well, _my _comic.

"I have to go help with dinner. See you, Kayla." Nina called.

"See you." I shouted back.

I finally finished rearranging my bed and unpacking my clothes and collapsed onto my bed next to Jerome. I peeked a look at where he was up to, and he was reading the last few panels. He finished reading and closed the comic.

"Did you like it?" I asked him.

"Epic." He replied, grinning. "Can I borrow the next one?"

"Sure. Who's your fave character?"

"Glenn. He's pretty badass." Jerome chuckled.

"I know. If you think Glenn is badass, you should start watching the TV Show. Daryl is freakin' amazing." I told him.

"There's a TV show? So all the blood and guts and gore are translated into a moving _image?_" Jerome said excitedly. I nodded.

"Count me in!" He exclaimed.

"I have seasons 2 and 3 on box set." I boasted. Jerome's eyes widened with delight. He glanced at the clock and stretched.

"What? Is it your bedtime already?" I teased.

"Nah. I don't go to bed until half eight. Nine on weekends." He mocked. "But round about now, it's dinnertime." He yawned.

"Cool. You know what we're having?" I asked and got up from my bed, and pulled Jerome up too. Jerome shrugged.

"I get up too late to know anything on weekends. The rest of the time I don't listen."

"I think I can compete with lie-ins." I smiled. "Harry too."

"Oh really? At least you do get up at eight. Nina, Fabian, Mick and Mara get up the earliest. Usually around eight. Then Joy, Amber, Alfie and Patricia get up around nine. Then me and Eddie get up at around eleven." He gloated with his knowledge. I snorted.

"What?" He asked.

"That's nothing. Me and Harry get up at around one in the afternoon in the holidays and on weekends. Twelve if we can be bothered to drag ourselves out of bed."

"You've got to be kidding me! I gotta tell Eddie." Jerome laughed, opening the bedroom door.

"Why?"

"Because we like pushing sleeping in to the limits. But everyone else in the house pressures us into getting up earlier than we usually like. But now that you and Harry are here, we can all sleep in together!" He shouted.

"Sleep in together?" I laughed.

"You know what I mean. Not in a dirty way. Unless you-" Jerome was cut off because we had entered the dining/living room. Harry had saved a seat for me next to him. I smiled at my housemates who were staring at me a bit creepily, and I sat down next to Harry with Jerome on my other side.

Nina was opposite me and gave me an encouraging smile as she passed out plates for everyone. Trudy set some steaming bowls of various foods on the table and everybody started to help themselves.

"Thanks Trudy." Me and Harry chimed. Lucy had told us to be thankful and gracious to whoever feeds us, whether you're on holiday or a guest at someone's house. It always ends up you getting the nicest food.

Works every time.

"Thank you Kayla and Harry. For that you get out of chores this week." Trudy beamed. Me and Harry went all Pewdiepie victory and bro-fisted under the table. Everybody else groaned.

"Yes Trudy thanks…"

"Thank you Trudy!"

"Yes, thank you Trudy, for putting food into my mouth and keeping me alive all these years." Jerome said through mouthfuls of potato.

"Nice try." Trudy murmured, before leaving the room.

We all ate in silence for a few minutes.

"Has anyone done the French homework?" A girl with darker skin and dark hair asked.

"That's Mara." Jerome whispered in my ear.

"I have." Fabian declared.

"Oh Good! I need to trade with someone to check I have got it right." Mara exclaimed. I coulcn't help but laugh at her nerdiness and Harry almost choked on his mashed potato, and most of it sprayed out of his mouth and all over the blonde American bloke opposite him.

"EW!" The American teen exclaimed, but started laughing when he wiped himself down. Most of the table was in fits of laughter, and Harry turned bright red and started laughing after swallowing the rest of the potato in his mouth.

"What's so funny about wanting to do homework?" Mara, the only person who wasn't laughing, huffed.

"Nothing. Nothing." Harry muttered. Mara frowned and started stabbing the food on her plate with a fork.

"Sorry mate." Harry told the boy opposite him.

"It's okay. I'm Eddie." The guy told Harry.

"Yeah. I'm Mick." Another blonde stated before stuffing his face again.

"Patricia." The gothic looking girl told us.

"I'm Joy." Another girl told us.

"Mara." Mara huffed. She was starting to get on my nerves.

"SO… When is the French due?" Jerome asked.

"Tomorrow." Mara stated matter-of-factly.

"Shit!"

"Son of a-"

Jerome and Eddie cursed.

"Jerome! Eddie!" Mara looked annoyed.

"Sorry." Both of them mumbled.

"What's wrong?" Harry asked.

"They shouldn't use language like that." Mara ordered.

"As Harry asked, what's wrong?" I enquired. Patricia smirked.

"Okay! I'm gonna get desert." Nina declared, breaking up a to be argument. Mara glared at me across the table.

I gathered up everyone's plates and started to make my way to the kitchen. But when I passed Mara, she deliberately pushed her chair out and knocked into me, making me lose my balance, and a few plates flew up into the air.

However, I quickly regained my balance and caught the three rogue plates.

"Wow Kayla! How did you do that?" Fabian asked from the kitchen where he was with Nina.

"Uh…" I looked over at Harry. "Reflexes." I smiled.

"And mighty good ones too!" Mick laughed.

I carried the plates to the kitchen and Nina and Fabian sat bowls of ice cream in everyone's places. We all started eating, but me and Harry didn't finish our desert. We have never really liked ice cream.

"So Kayla and Harry, where do you live in New York?" Nina again tried to make conversation.

"Manhattan. We live in three floors of a building." Harry smiled.

"Oh! I've always wanted to live in New York!" Amber exclaimed.

"Do you live with your parents?" Joy asked.

I hesitated.

"Um, our parents died in a fire when we were little. We're adopted." I said.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Joy murmured.

"It's alright." Harry smiled.

"Yeah, our adoptive parents are really nice. We even call them mum and dad." I told everyone and reached for the cream.

"Where did you go to school before here?" Patricia asked.

"Midtown High."

"And that is…?" Amber began.

"A normal state school."

"So…?" Amber began again.

"We're here on scholarship." I finished for her.

"On what subject?" Eddie asked before spooning at least two whole scoops of ice cream into his mouth.

"Mostly Science." Harry explained.

"Awesome." Eddie said with a full mouth. I half expected Mara to tell him off, but when I looked over at her she was snuggling down on the sofa with Mick. Harry followed my line of vision and pulled a face.

"Please don't tell me you're all dating each other." Harry whined.

"Yes! Me and Boo here are dating!" Amber squealed before pecking Alfie on the cheek.

"Me and Yakker here are together." Eddie motioned towards Patricia before she hit him playfully on the arm.

"And me and Nina are an item." Fabian smiled before kissing Nina right in front of us.

"Great." I moaned. "I guess us four have to band together." I said before all of us put our arms around each other to symbolise… being a group? I don't know.

"We'd better start our French, Jerry." Eddie sighed before reaching into his school bag.

Jerome sighed as well and did the same.

"You good at French?" Jerome asked.

"Oui. J'avais pris des Français depuis la première école. Harry est également bon au Français, ainsi il peut vous aider aussi, mais je peux vous aider, si vous aimez." I finished.

"Wow. Multi-linguistic." Jerome laughed.

"I think you and Harry rival Mara a bit." Eddie laughed, but he shut up when Mara shot him a dirty look from her hug-fest with Mick.

"What's this?" Jerome asked.

"Rain." I replied. This is pretty basic stuff, but compared to other students I think Jerome is pretty good at French.

"Il pleut dehors." Jerome spoke.

"Yep."

"Quand il me pleut jouez au tennis en parc avec mes amis." Jerome was rather proud.

"You got the language bit right, but do you really play tennis in the park with your friends when it's raining?" I teased.

"Oh damn!" Jerome laughed. "Quand il est ensoleillé je jouez au tennis en parc avec mes amis." He spoke.

"That makes sense now." I laughed.

"Alright. I am done now." Jerome sighed, and sunk back into his armchair.

"I have to go get my bag ready for tomorrow." I complained.

"Can't you do that later?"

"Okay then." I sighed in defeat. After looking at the expression on Jerome's face I knew what he wanted. "You want to watch the Walking Dead, don't you?" He only nodded slowly, an evil grin on his face. "The first episode?" He kept on nodding.

"What rating is it?" Jerome asked.

"The first season is a 15. The second is an 18."

"Don't tell them that. Amber and Mara can barely watch PGs." Jerome whispered in my ear. I grinned.

"Everyone! We're gonna watch a video!" Jerome shouted.

"You're not tricking us into watching One Born Every Minute, are you?" Mick asked, and I laughed at the thought of them watching a woman give birth.

"Nope. Kayla, can you go and get it."

"Sure. Harry we're watching our favourite." I called across the room to where Harry was talking with Eddie. Harry smirked and winked.

I ran upstairs and retrieved the disc, not wanting to arouse suspicion with the DVD cover. When I ran back downstairs again Jerome slotted the disc into the DVD player. The titles came on, with the title of the first episode of the same name of the comics, 'Days Gone Bye'.

"Oh no…" Mara moaned and buried her face into Mick's neck.

"Hell yes." Eddie and Patricia said at the same time.

The episode started, and as the show progressed, Jerome shuffled closer and closer to where I was on the floor. With each zombie kill Mara and Amber would shriek and bury their heads into their boyfriends, which highly annoyed Mick and Alfie and just about anyone else. Patricia then had the sense to tell them to leave if they didn't want to watch it. Mara looked at Mick longingly before he said that he was enjoying the show. Mara left in a strop, and even with the TV blaring we could hear her stomping up the stairs. Amber decided to stay, and I think she started to enjoy the show. It got to the part where Rick clambered into the tank and shot the undead soldier, and then the zombies swarmed around the tank and the episode ended.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" Eddie shouted.

"I know! I'm fed up with watching soap operas with Amber." Patricia gleefully stated.

"Epic. It's a little different from the comic though." Jerome murmured. I then realised he was squished right up next to me with his legs outstretched in front of him.

"There are comics?" Eddie asked. "Can I borrow them, Harry?"

"Sure. The show gets better though. And gorier." Harry said.

"Right, we should get to bed." Nina yawned, before getting up from next to Fabian.

"It's only half nine though." I moaned.

"Curfew's at ten."

"What?!" Harry laughed. "Me and Kayla don't go to bed until midnight."

"Well, those are the rules. You don't want to be caught out by Victor."

"Okay then." I was defeated anyway. Jet lag was finally catching up to me. I dragged my feet upstairs before Harry, Alfie and Jerome reached their room.

"G'night." I called to all of them.

"G'night." They lazily called back.

Once in my room with Nina and Patricia I changed into my beloved Batman pyjamas, brushed my teeth, removed my make-up and got my bag ready.

After climbing into bed, I almost immediately fell asleep.


	3. Annoying Mara

_"Kayla, why didn't you save me?"_

_"Kyla, I thought we were friends."_

_"Don't you like me anymore?"_

_"Don't you remember me, Kayla?"_

I awoke with somewhat of a start the next morning. My alarm clock told me that it was 6:15am. I groaned and dragged myself out of bed to have a shower, as I forgot to have one the night before. I gathered my toiletries and towel and shuffled sleepily to the bathroom, where I was surprised to be the first one in line. Someone was already in there, so I had to wait. I leant against the wall, towel draped over my left forearm, and I almost fell asleep. The water in the bathroom stopped, and the door opened. Mick came out in a dressing gown, his blond hair damp from his shower.

"You're up early." I said groggily.

"Went for a run. You've got all the hot water, I had a cold shower." Mick said, before walking back to his own room.

Hot water. Yay.

I shuffled into the bathroom and locked the door before I stripped down and stepped into the shower. I turned the water on and I was greeted by a jet of ice cold water. I yelped and punched the button to turn the water hotter. Bloody hell, Mick _did _have a cold shower.

I lathered shower gel over my body and massaged shampoo and then conditioner in my hair, enjoying my short shower. I then decided I had used enough hot water and flicked the switch to turn it off before drying myself a bit.

Dammit.

I forgot my dressing gown.

I have to go out in my towel.

Fantastic.

I scooped up my clothes and unlocked the door before stepping out into the coldness of the hallway. For a moment I had thought I had held up a long queue, but only Harry and Jerome were out there.

"Forgot your robe?" Harry asked, still half asleep.

"How did you guess?" I asked sarcastically. Jerome shuffled into the bathroom and almost fell over the towel on the floor near the shower.

"Damn. I forgot my dressing gown too. Kayla, can you hold my place?" Harry asked. I nodded sleepily before he dashed of back to his room.

"Um, Kayla?" Jerome asked from the bathroom.

"Yes?" I half-heartedly replied. I am so not a morning person.

"I think you left something behind." Jerome said before handing me my bright turquoise lace bra, and as Lucy calls them, panties, which I had left by the shower.

My eyes widened in shock and I turned crimson in embarrassment before I snatched them off Jerome, who just awkwardly smiled.

"Thanks." I mumbled. Jerome nodded and walked back into the bathroom, this time closing the door behind him and locking it.

Harry returned with his dressing gown in hand, unaware of the embarrassing encounter I had with Jerome.

"I think the others are starting to wake up. Good thing Jerome woke me up when he did." Harry told me. "Thanks for holding my place." I nodded and briskly walked back to my room, almost bumping into Joy on the way. I threw my pyjamas on my bed and started to put on clean underwear when Nina's alarm went off. She and Patricia started to stir, and I quickly did the clasp on my bra when Nina sat up. She took one look at my half-dressed state and my wet hair.

"Up already?"

"Yeah. I didn't even set an alarm." I smiled.

"Was there a long queue for the shower when you were there?"

"Mick was in there when I got to the bathroom. He didn't use any hot water. Then I had my shower, then Jerome is and I think Harry is waiting and Joy is going down there right now." I told them, spraying on deodorant and pulling on my school blouse. I blow dried my hair until it was no longer damp and stepped into my skirt and pulled it up. It felt wrong, somehow.

Probably because I haven't worn a skirt for a decade.

"Is your hair naturally like that?" Patricia asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Yeah." I replied. I wasn't blessed with iron straight hair, but I had almost symmetrical dark chocolate brown waves which I had dip dyed blonde during the summer. I sat down at my desk and lined my eyes with my trusty liquid liner, with cat flicks. I used a lip brush to paint on some pale peach lipstick that was my absolute favourite and brushed on some light peach blusher, and voila, I was done. I had practiced this so many times that it barely took two minutes to apply my makeup each morning. I pulled on my blazer and my ankle socks, and my tan lace and buckle ankle boots. I reached for my tie and tried to remember how Lucy had told me to do it. By this time Patricia and Nina had left to presumably take a shower, so I was alone. Locked into my purple velvet jewellery box was an intricate rose gold locket that had belonged to my birth mother. It has one of those awkward clasps that you can't do yourself so I'm going to have to ask Harry to do it. I adore Frank and Lucy, my adoptive parents, I really do, but sometimes I wish that I could meet my biological parents. Harry wishes that too. It was almost time for breakfast so I slung my Batman bag (gotta love Batman) over my shoulder and skipped down the stairs. When I got to the breakfast only Harry, Mara (great), Mick and Fabian were sitting at the table.

"Morning." Harry sleepily greeted, his nerdy glasses almost slipping off his nose. Harry usually wears contacts, but I'm guessing he couldn't be bothered to put them in today.

"Morning." I chimed back before taking a seat next to him.

Amber, Patricia, Joy and Nina then walked in gossiping and took their seats next to boyfriends respectively. While standing up Nina bent down and gave Fabian what I think is a 'Good Morning' kiss.

Gross.

"Ugh, get a room." Harry whined and he dug a spoon into his soggy cornflakes.

Jerome, Alfie and Eddie were the last ones down to breakfast.

"Good morning everyone, I see the assassins have failed." Jerome joked, which earned a laugh from me, Harry, Alfie and Eddie. The others did not look amused.

"Did anyone else have nightmares about that TV show last night?" Mick laughed, putting an arm around Mara.

"Yeah. I dreamt I was a zombie and that I was chasing Rick. It was very strange." Alfie shivered.

"I woke up in a cold sweat." Eddie laughed.

"Same." said Mick.

"I also had nightmare. But it wasn't about zombies." I told everyone as I set a jug of orange juice on the table.

"Really? What was it about?" Nina asked, looking genuinely worried. Nina, Fabian, Patricia, Amber, Alfie and Jerome all had grave faces.

"Well, I was walking through a corridor of a really dirty and grimy hospital. The overhead lights were flickering. Suddenly, a girl came round the corner. She was really pale, dirty and sickly, and had a stained and torn hospital gown on. Her blonde hair was really greasy, and she had dark bags underneath her eyes. She was holding onto a drip thing, and was shuffling along the floor." I explained, and looked at some questioning faces. I continued. "She then looked at me and turned around, and said 'Kayla, why didn't you save me?'" I said in my creepiest voice. Eddie, Mick, Jerome and Alfie shivered. "She then started shuffling towards me and going 'Kayla, I thought we were friends.' I then told her that I didn't know her and she said 'Kayla, don't you remember me? Have you forgotten me already?' And then I started to get scared and she was really close, and I could see that her face had been sewn on and the stitches were all black and bloody. She then said 'Kayla, don't you like me anymore? Don't you like my words?' And then I woke up."

Everybody was silent.

Eddie shuddered.

"That is the creepiest nightmare _ever_." He shuddered again.

"Jesus Christ, that is _scary_." Mick also shivered.

Jerome pulled a face.

_"_Bloody _hell_." He cried.

"It's not that scary…" Mara claimed.

"Uh, yes it is. That's some scary shit." Jerome told her, and she automatically shut her mouth.

"Alright guys, I think we should get going now." Fabian declared before standing up and pulling out Nina's chair for her.

Aw, he's kinda sweet.

I groaned before holding out my hands for Harry to take, and he slowly pulled me up and dramatically shuffled to the door. I realised that I still hadn't put my locket on so I took Harry to one side and handed the locket to him. After so many years of the same routine Harry immediately knew what to do and draped the chain around my neck and secured it.

"We're going to have a great day today." Harry whispered in my ear.

"How do you know?" I replied a bit snarky.

"I can feel it." He whispered before grabbing my forearm and pulling me after Jerome and Alfie who were engrossed in their pranking conversation. Harry pulled me closer and let me rest my head on his shoulder and put an arm around me.

"Your dream was about her, wasn't it?" He whispered in my ear so nobody else could hear.

"Yeah." I replied and buried my face into his neck. "I don't really want to talk about it, though."

"Fair enough." Harry murmured, knowing I was touchy on that subject.

Me and Harry had reached the school building and followed Jerome and Alfie to Science. We took our seats and waited for Mr Sweet to tell us where to sit, and he called everyone's names for registration.

"Ah, Harry and Kayla. Our new students." Mr Sweet said after finishing. "Reagan… ah. There's a desk free at the back for both of you."

I sighed in relief at me and Harry being sat together in our first term, and walked over to the free desk at the back, passing most of our housemates along the way.

"Our topic today is biology." Mr Sweet began. After explaining some animal cells and hearts and things it was about ten minutes until the end of the first lesson.

"Now, imagine that Mr Rutter here is an amputee. How will we be able to theoretically regrow his arm?" Mr Sweet asked the class. Immediately Mara's hand shot up and Mr Sweet pointed at her.

"Stem cell regrowth bec-" Mara began but was interrupted by Mr Sweet.

"A good idea Mara, but I was thinking about something more radical…" Mr Sweet urged the class.

Me and Harry looked at each other.

"Harry?" Mr Sweet asked.

"Cross-Species genetics." He mumbled.

"Yes!" Mr Sweet exclaimed. The class looked thoroughly confused.

"But that wouldn't work." Mara said rather pompously. The class fell silent.

"It could." I began. "You splice animal cells with human DNA and sequence it into a formula and inject yourself with it." I scoffed, trying to make it sound as simple as possible for the others to understand.

Mara is _so _irritating.

"And the animal cells you would use would be something like a lizard's, because some species' have the ability to regrow a limb when it has been lost." Harry expanded for me.

"And thus being able to regrow limbs." I added.

"However, it wouldn't be exactly human; it would have some animal characteristics." Harry said.

"But that's only a minor flaw." I smirked.

Mr Sweet was smiling so hard that I thought his face would split open.

"Excellent! Excellent!" Mr Sweet shouted. Mara was fuming. "And I trust you have a formula?" He asked.

"Um, yeah. We think it needs some tweaking though." Me and Harry said at the same time.

"Good, good. Now, I want an essay from everyone on the biological characteristics of an animal of your choice on my desk on Friday. But Harry and Kayla, I want an essay on your 'findings'." Mr Sweet finished before the class groaned and the bell rang for the second lesson.

_End of the day_

"Hey Kayla."

"Hey Jerome."

"Mind if I sit?"

"Nope." I replied and patted the space next to me.

"So?" Jerome asked and stretched his legs.

"So what?"

"Mara's fuming." He said simply.

"I know." I smirked, secretly gloating with my achievement inside.

"She was even more pissed when you and Harry had a casual conversation with our horrible teacher."

"How did that annoy her?"

"It was all in _French_." He said, putting emphasis on the last word. I shrugged.

"I think me and Harry have had a fairly good first day."

"You tell me." Jerome laughed and passed me a packet of crisps.


	4. Grave Faces

**_Hey guys, I'm really happy as this story is getting more attention than I was expecting it to get! But due to the storyline, I'm going to use material and characters from Marvel comics. It's not going to become a crossover, but they will feature heavily in the story. Also, I want to say what Harry and Kayla look like. Harry's actor lookalike would be Andrew Garfield, and Kayla would look something like a cross between Kiera Knightley and Megan Fox. Thanks!_**

Later that day I was playing Slender with Harry in the living room. Mara and Mick were in the library (I think Mara is helping Mick with his exam work) and Nina, Fabian, Amber, Alfie, Patricia, Eddie, Joy and Jerome had disappeared somewhere.

So it was just the Reagans.

"I guess we had a good day." Harry told me, his eyes not averting from the laptop screen.

"I know. But it's kinda sad here, there's nothing to do." I whined.

"Maybe we can go out on Friday." Harry suggested.

"Why Friday?"

"We get up too late on weekends." He explained and I nodded in agreement.

"Shizer. He's over there." Harry pointed to the screen where Slenderman was lurking. We both have a habit of swearing in German.

"Ah! Found another note." I cried out. But our gaming was interrupted by an incoming video call. "Oh god, it's Fury." I moaned. Harry accepted the call.

"Agents Reagans." Fury greeted. Fury was a formidable character, complete with an eye patch and numerous scary looking scars. On the screen in the background I could see various people with earpieces and guns scurrying around the dull corridors.

"Hey." Me and Harry chorused grimly.

"Anything yet?" Fury asked.

"Um, no. We're trying to establish strong relationships first. Then they won't be as suspicious." Harry explained.

"Good. After what happened last year, these kids won't trust anyone easily. Update me on anything you uncover. Fury out." Fury finished and the video call ended. Harry sighed and lay down on the carpet with his hands behind his head, messing up his already messy brown hair.

"I don't like this." He whispered.

"Neither do I. But it's our job." I sighed and lay down next to him.

"As soon as this is over and we get back to Frank and Lucy, we're not doing this for a while." He said while playing with a strand of my hair.

"Mmmm." I replied in agreement.

Suddenly the door opened and Trudy hurried in with bags of shopping. "Hello Harry, Hello Kayla!" She chimed.

God, she's perky.

"Do you know where the rest are?" She asked, obviously meaning our missing housemates.

"No idea. Mara and Mick might be in the library though." Harry replied and got up from his place on the floor, and yawned while stretching.

"How was your first day then?" Trudy asked while unpacking the groceries.

"It was okay. I think Mr Sweet was clearly impressed with our amazing intellectual skills." Harry mocked and turned off the laptop that was still on the floor.

"That's good. It isn't easy starting at a new school a little in to the new academic year." Trudy smiled, and started loading food into the fridge.

We heard footsteps outside in the hallway and Nina, Fabian, Eddie, Patricia, Joy, Alfie, Jerome and Amber came into the room, talking indistinguishably amongst themselves.

"Oh! Where have you lot been?" Trudy asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"Outside." Fabian mumbled with a grave face. Nina looked pale.

"You're just in time to help with dinner, then!" Trudy smiled.

"Why can't Kayla and Harry help?" Joy moaned.

"Because they don't have chores this week if I remember correctly." Trudy dismissed.

I caught Jerome's eye and smirked at him, and he weakly smiled back before his expression was worry again.

Something is definitely up.

Mara and Mick then bustled in smiling and laughing. At least they're having a good time.

"Ah, Mick and Mara! You're helping!" Trudy chorused whilst putting a floral apron on. Mick and Mara groaned before laughing again, much to the stares of fellow housemates.

Silence.

"Wow, you can literally feel the awkwardness." Harry sneered, while making 'feeling' gestures with his hands. Me, Mara, Mick and Trudy laughed, but the others didn't make a sound.

"I think I might go upstairs." Nina said quietly. She turned away and left the room, the others following suit, leaving just five of us (including Trudy) in the room. Mick raised his eyebrows.

"They're rather down in the dumps, aren't they?" Trudy smiled, trying to make conversation.

"Trudy, can we go out this Friday?" I asked.

"Of course! Where would you like to go?"

One look at Harry and I knew what he wanted.

"Um, it depends if Frank and Lucy have sent them, but is there a local skate park?"

"I think there's one in a nearby village." Trudy replied, and starting chopping up some carrots.

"Okay, thanks Trudy!" I thanked her before me and Harry left to go upstairs. We both paused at my room, and strained our ears to listen to hushed whispers. We both looked at each other and without talking Harry opened the door. Every housemate was in there apart from Mick and Mara who were downstairs. They all looked startled at our sudden entry.

"What were you guys talking about?" I asked innocently before sitting myself next to Jerome on my bed.

"Oh, nothing." Amber murmured, thinking me and Harry hadn't heard anything.

But we did.

"Do you know when supper is ready?" Joy asked.

"Uh, didn't ask." Harry cut in. "But this Friday me and Kayla are going out. Does anyone wanna come?" Harry asked.

"We have to, it's like a rule." Nina told us before snuggling up to Fabian.

"Okay then…" I sighed.

This was awkward.

"Are you all alright?" Harry asked everyone.

"Oh yeah… we're fine, really." Everyone half-heartedly replied. Me and Harry looked at each and our suspicions were confirmed.

We **_definitely_**knew what was going on.

"Oh!" Amber exclaimed.

"Something wrong?" Harry muttered, but I don't think he honestly cared about Amber's safety.

"The dance is this Saturday!" She chattered.

"Oh yeah!" Joy and Nina exclaimed at the same time.

"I already have my dress!" Amber squealed. "We need to buy you one, Kayla!"

"Oh hell no. I ain't goin' to no dance." I moaned, and took a swig from a Mountain Dew bottle that was by my bed.

"But you have to!" Joy pleaded.

"No. No. No." I cried.

"Oh come on Kayla, it might be fun." Harry teased. I lifted my head slowly and growled at him.

"Yeah Kayla! It might be fun!" Jerome teased as well.

"Please Kayla!"

"You have to be there!"

"It's going to be _so _fun!"

"MAYBE!" I shouted.

Everyone burst into laughter, including myself.

"I'm not a dance type. Except that under sixteen's night at that club around the corner a couple of years ago. D'ya remember it, Harry?" I asked while relieving memories.

"Do I remember it? That night I got so sweaty you could've purified it and watered Central Park!" Harry laughed.

"Do you remember Alec?" I asked while fighting laughter.

"What, that guy who was actually eighteen that you almost got to second base with?" Harry laughed, almost in tears.

"That's the one." I sighed.

"And that kid who had an asthma attack outside 'cos another kid punched him?" Harry asked.

I nodded enthusiastically.

"Ah, memories." We both sighed at the same time.

"Wow, I guess you guys had an eventful childhood." Fabian smiled.

"Sounds awesome."

"Kayla Reagan, fourteen years old, almost got to second base with a guy four years older than her." Harry declared.

"Impressive." Patricia complimented me.

"So will you come to the dance?" Amber squealed.

"Sure, why not." I smiled in defeat, and the group cheered.

"Can I just ask, will there be vodka?" Harry asked.

Everyone fell silent.

"What?" He smirked. "I like vodka."

"ANYWAY." Alfie began, averting a rather adult subject, and everyone started laughing again.

"We need to get you a dress Kayla!" Joy chattered.

"I think I might have something." I concluded, and dragged myself off my bed and walked over to my wardrobe, and started pulling out random garments.

"No."

"No."

"Maybe."

"A possibility."

"No."

"No."

I muttered to myself while throwing the rejects onto Jerome, who was still positioned rather weirdly on my bed.

"Okay, so _maybe _I need to get something."

"Um, yes, yes you do!" Nina smiled and laughed again.

"Um, excuse me?" Jerome asked from under a pile of clothes. "Why am I buried underneath a mountain of teenage girl clothing?"

"Because you were too lazy to move ya fat ass." Harry told him and took a swig from a Mountain Dew bottle that I had discarded on the floor.

"I'm not fat!" Jerome cried, sitting up suddenly while laughing.

"DINNER!" Trudy called from downstairs.

"Be careful not to overdo it Clarke, the floorboards have just been replaced." Harry sneered before ducking from a pillow Jerome threw at him. Jerome scrambled off my bed and launched himself at Harry, but Harry was too quick for him and was already out the door.

"YOU'RE AS GOOD AS DEAD, REAGAN!" Jerome screamed in the doorway.

"YOU'LL NEVER CATCH ME ALIVE, JACKASS!" Harry shrieked.

Everybody started laughing again as Jerome ran out the doorway and down the hall where I presume Harry was hiding. We all got up and bustled out the doorway into the corridor, still giggling from the recent antics. After having an interesting chat with Patricia about My Chemical Romance, we entered the dining room and found Harry and Jerome still absent from the table. After we took our seats we could hear Jerome and Harry upstairs arguing with lots of crashing and laughing, but then there was a massive crash followed by lots of little bangs and then another crash that made us all get up and investigate.

"What the hell-"

We found Harry and Jerome sprawled on the floor near the stairs, eyes and mouths wide with shock before they both started laughing like there was no tomorrow.

"OW!" Jerome laughed, still in the exact same position we had found him. On his side, legs crossed and one arm twisted under his body. Harry was right next to him, his arms over his head and on his front, his legs almost doing the splits.

"What on earth happened?" Trudy spoke from the doorway, still wearing her floral apron.

"We-we… we were fighting at the top of the stairs, and then Jerome slipped… and then we were on the floor." Harry stuttered in between laughs.

"So you basically fell down the stairs?" Eddie asked.

"Pretty much." Jerome laughed, and had finally picked himself off the floor and pulled Harry up.

I grabbed Harry's hand and pulled him back into the dining room and sat him down, as he was still too hysterical to perform basic human actions. Amber then started to chatter about the upcoming dance that she and Joy had organized, but I only heard glimpses of the conversation.

"Oh my God! I have the _perfect _dress!"

"Joy, can I borrow your purple bag?"

"Oh yeah! Amber, I need to borrow some heels!"

"I need to borrow your lip-gloss Neens, it has the perfect tone for my dress!"

I decided that I needed to contribute to the conversation, somehow.

"SSsss- hussshhh-sanghasssss-hushtttssss-ankassshhhhtttsss"

The table stopped talking.

Everyone looked at me enquiringly.

I tried to put on a puzzled look.

"Um, guys, it's rude not to answer, she's obviously speaking to you in parseltongue." Harry pretended to look disgusted."Hasssshhh-ttt-sushhh-taasssssss." Harry spoke. We pretended to have a conversation in parseltongue, and everyone except Mara and Mick contributed to the 'conversation' in one way or another.

"Has anyone ever been doing something then suddenly thought, oh my god! Every second I do doing nothing is wasting a second of my life!" Harry spoke to no-one in particular.

"I did that last week while playing Skyrim." I said while shovelling brownie into my mouth.

"Well, that's depressing." Eddie joked.

"What does everyone want to do after they graduate?" Nina asked everyone.

Oh no. She asked about 'the subject'.

"Well, I want to go into sport, and everyone probably knows that." Mick laughed.

"Anyone else?" Nina asked hopefully.

"A peacock trainer." Harry declared.

Everyone looked at him.

"JUUUSSST KIDDING." Harry smiled, before leaning back and yawning.

"Let's get started on our Science, Mick." Mara told Mick and they went upstairs.

"When's the Science due?" Eddie asked.

"Friday." Nina replied while scooping up plates.

"I'll do it Thursday then." Eddie yawned.

"Eddie!" Fabian smirked.

"Scrap that, Friday morning." He joked.

"We can just print off our old essays, can't we Harry?" I asked my twin.

"Yeah." He sighed.

"Right, who wants to watch another Walking Dead epsisode?"


	5. Nightmares

_"I trust you know everything?" The man sneered in front of Kayla's face. She could see the fading scars scattered across his face, his emerald green eyes glittering with sick delight. _

_"N-N-No." Kayla stammered, tears stinging her eyes_

_"LIES!" The man screamed and struck Kayla across the face._

_"Please… I don't know anything..." Kayla started crying, the pain in her leg growing._

_"YES YOU DO!" He screamed._

_He twisted the knife in deeper._

_"PLEASE! STOP IT!" Kayla shrieked, a river of crimson blood trickling down her leg._

_He pulled the knife out._

_"Okay then, let's play another game." He smirked. _

_Without warning, he grabbed Kayla's shirt around the shoulders and ripped it off, while Kayla yelped in surprise, and he grinned and yanked her plain uniform-grade underwear off._

_"Please… don't." Kayla whispered while struggling against the man's crushing grip._

_"You want to go back to this game, then?" The man sneered, and held up the blood splattered knife. Kayla shook her head violently._

_"Well then…" He grinned, and slammed Kayla against a wall._

* * *

_Kayla wrapped herself tightly in the stained and dirty sheet. Her eyes started to droop. The wounds on her legs, arms and chest were just beginning to heal. It didn't prevent the pain, though. _

_She felt so ugly._

_Her hair was so greasy she could feel it right down into her fingernails, which were themselves covered in a thin film of grit. Her lips were chapped and bloody, her eyes bloodshot and weak. She drew the sheet around her ever tighter._

_Her clothes were long gone._

_Seven days._

_Seven days._

_Seven days…_

_Suddenly, she heard footsteps and chatter outside. Kayla panicked._

_He mustn't want more… he can't want more. _

_The heavy industrial door burst open, and a tall, muscular blond man ran inside._

_"Kayla?" He stopped in his tracks._

_"S-Steve?" Kayla stammered._

_ Kayla hung her head, having never felt so embarrassed in her life. One look at her state and he rushed forward and held her in his arms as she sobbed into his chest._

_"We're here to rescue you, Kayla." He murmured in her ear. She kept on crying. "He didn't, did he?" Steve asked, a worried look in his eyes. Kayla nodded, crying even more. "That BASTARD!" Steve shouted. Steve kept holding her in his arms, making Kayla blush even more. She always had a bit of a crush on the First Avenger._

_Kayla's head started to ache and throb after all the crying._

_"Where's Harry?" She sobbed._

_"I don't know." He quietly replied._

_"Y-Y-You need to find him." She whispered._

_"We will. I will." _

_"Steve?"_

_"Yes?"_

_"I don't feel very-" _

_Kayla blacked out._

* * *

_"HARRY! HARRY!" Kayla thrashed around on her bed, intertwining with the sheets._

_"Kayla! Kayla, wake up!" Nina tried to shake Kayla awake._

_Harry and Jerome burst into the room, and both rushed over to where Kayla was shrieking._

_"Kayla! Wake up! Wake up Kayla!" Harry shouted, and gripped Kayla around the shoulders and pulled her into his lap. _

_Kayla awoke with a start surrounded by worried faces, and stared up at Harry's tired-looking face._

_"H-Harry?" She stuttered._

_"I'm here." He whispered, and pressed his forehead against hers. "Sleep, Kayla." _

_She drifted away, and the last thing she remembered before falling into the depths of sleep was a pair of muscular arms lifting her off the bed._

* * *

I rolled over in bed, but the sheets and the duvet twisted around my limbs and my head was next to the pillow.

_Friday. _I smiled to myself.

I shifted myself and rolled over again, and felt a weight next to me.

Oh shit.

_Please, please, please…_

THANK GOD!

It was only Harry.

For a moment I had thought it was some random guy in the house, which would have been awkward.

Why was I here?

Last night.

Oh God, I must've scared literally everyone in the house to death. Harry rolled over so we were facing each other, opened his eyes and yawned.

"Mornin'" He smiled and ruffled my hair. "You gave us quite a scare last night."

"Did I wake everyone else up?"

"Yep. You were really loud."

"Wow, you sure do know how to make a girl feel better."

"I know."

I snuggled up to Harry even more.

"Trudy had to come in while Victor was storming around telling everyone to go back to bed. Fabian, Alfie, Mick, Eddie, Mara, Joy and Amber were all caught. Me and Jerome weren't though. " Harry explained last night to me.

"Jerome was there too?"

"Yeah. He was well (A/N I'm British and this is British slang, not accidental bad grammar) worried."

"God."

"Yeah."

Jerome and Alfie started to stir, and Harry whispered in my ear to pretend to be asleep.

Harry, Jerome and Alfie started to get ready for school, throwing in some random conversation here and there.

A knock on the door ensued, and Trudy pushed it open a crack.

"Can I come in?" She whispered.

"Yeah." Alfie and Jerome mumbled.

Trudy crept in, and looked over at me buried beneath Harry's covers.

"Is she awake?"

"Not yet." Harry replied.

"Yes she is, she has been for the last half hour." Jerome smirked.

I groaned and rolled over.

"Kayla sweetie, I think you need to stay home today." Trudy murmured.

"It was just a nightmare…" I tried to argue.

"I know, but it was a pretty full on one, Kayla. I think it may be best for you."

"Fine." I couldn't really say no to a day off school.

"Okay then. Breakfast is ready downstairs, boys." Trudy told the boys before leaving the room.

"You're so lucky, Kayla." Alfie moaned while doing his tie.

"A day off school because of a nightmare…" Jerome sighed. "Hey Alfie, do you want to watch The Exorcist tonight?" Jerome suggested.

"But tomorrow's Saturday." Alfie grinned.

"Sunday then?"

"Sure."

"Count me in." Harry piped up.

"Me too." I murmured.

"Movie night it is then, but no girls except Kayla." Jerome told us. "We know how Amber and Mara get."

"What about Patricia?" I asked.

"Okay. She can come too." Jerome sighed in defeat.

"We'd better get to breakfast. See you Kayla." Harry bade goodbye.

"See you." Jerome and Alfie chimed.

"Bye." I murmured.

After they had closed the door behind them, I rolled over again and drifted off into the depths of dreamless sleep.

* * *

Buzz.

Buzz.

Buzzzzzz.

I groaned and groggily looked at Harry's alarm clock.

11:30am.

I picked up Harry's phone that was vibrating on the bedside table.

"Hello?" I groaned, my eyes still shut.

_"Kayla? Is that you?"_ A voice answered on the other end.

"Tony?" I asked. I could recognise that voice anywhere.

"_Are you alright, Kayla?" _Tony asked.

"Yeah. I'm fine. What's wrong?"

_"Just… after last night. We want to know if you're okay, you know."_

"How did you find out?"

_"Harry called us."_

"Oh."

_"Spangles is worried. He knows it was about… you know what." _

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a nightmare."

_"If you say so."_

"Is everything alright over there?"

_"Yeah. I mean, Loki went a bit wild the other day, and there was some trouble downtown. But other than that it's all ship-shape here."_

"That's good."

_"Have you got anything yet?"_

"No."

_"You know something's up, though?"_

"Definitely. But it's only the first week, Tony."

_"Yeah, of course. Well, we'll keep in touch. Say hi to Harry for us. Pepper sends her love." _

"Thanks Tony, will call you soon." Tony hung up.

Glancing at the clock again I decided I had to get up. It would be lunch soon, anyway.

I pulled on a jumper and crept outside and down the staircase, before entering the living room and throwing myself down onto one of the sofas.

"Oh! You're up Kayla!" Trudy exclaimed. "Lunch will be ready soon, when the others are here." She smiled.

I nodded and proceeded to turn on the PlayStation.

"Oh and Kayla, packages arrived for you and Harry today. He didn't want to open it until you were here."

"That's sweet of him."

"Yes, so maybe you can open them at lunch?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then." Trudy beamed, and started to make sandwiches.

I had forgotten how good Heavy Rain was on the PlayStation. And before I knew it, Amber, Nina and Fabian had piled into the room, hungry for food.

"Hey Kayla." Fabian smiled.

"Hi."

"Do you feel better, Kayla?" Amber asked, slightly clueless.

"Um, yeah."

If you feel 'better' after having a freaking creepy nightmare.

Soon every housemate was lounging around the house and eating, gossiping and talking about homework. Trudy came in with two very large and identical packages and gave them to me and Harry.

We looked at each other and eagerly started tearing the tape that secured the boxes and ripped the packages opened, which were filled with bubble wrap.

Harry lifted one of the bubble wrapped objects out of the box and started tearing the wrap off, before exposing one of his favourite possessions.

"YES!" He shouted before cradling his skateboard.

Jerome helped me unwrap my skateboard before I hugged it to my chest.

"Thank you Frank and Lucy!" I cried out at the sky.

"You skateboard?" Eddie asked, ever so slightly interested.

"Um, hell yeah." Harry retorted, before running outside. We all followed him as he jumped on his board and grinded along the railings of the car park, before doing a 360 off them.

Everyone whooped and cheered, before I started running and jumped on my skateboard too. I joined Harry who had jumped on the railings again, before coming to a lamppost and swinging around it.

All too soon, it was time for Harry and the others to return to lessons.

I moped around indoors, trying to find random things to occupy myself with, but in the end, I was just faffing around.

I went back to Harry's room, bored, and started rummaging around his possessions.

Rude, I know, but we're family, he won't mind.

I found old photos of us in the orphanage, both of us with braces and spots. I smiled at the memories. Harry at an amateur skateboarding championship, me representing our county in a dance competition. Many pictures of us on rides screaming, the camera catching us at just the right moment, especially on the log flume. Both of us on a boat down the river Thames in London. Both of us on a boat down the river Hudson. Us playing football (soccer) in Greenwich Park in London. Both of us playing football in Central Park. Our volcano exploding at a science fair at Midtown High, both of us hysterical with laughter. Me, Harry, Frank and Lucy in Mexico, our first proper holiday together. Both of us at the Pantomime with the orphanage, in the town we were born and raised until we were adopted. Harry and Andy, his best friend from middle school, with me and Alison, my best friend from middle school, all together at our local park, eating ice cream and drinking milkshakes. A picture of us at our local swimming gala, when we raised the most money for charity. Eating pizza while watching Batman. Both of us dressed as World War Two evacuees on a school trip. Both of us camping with our school in the English weather, better known as the pouring rain. Me at six years old in a strop while playing with a tea set. Harry playing on the PlayStation the orphanage got for Christmas.

Harry is quite the photographer.

I wandered over to his wardrobe, looking at his favourite shirts and sneakers. He had stashed his prized skateboard in there.

I walked over to his bookshelf, where everything from 'The Joy of Quantum Physics' and Harry Potter was lined up neatly. He had a whole shelf dedicated to The Walking Dead and various comics, and the shelf below was his valuable DVD collection I wasn't allowed to touch, especially discs like The Usual Suspects and Pulp Fiction, whom he valued ever so highly. I sighed and sat down on his bed, and wandered what lesson they were having at the moment. I saw another Mountain Dew bottle on his bedside table and took a sip, shuddering at the sudden taste. His glasses were discarded near his laptop, so I guessed he was wearing contacts today. His glasses aren't geeky, they look like the ones that most girls wear today.

I sighed again and lay down, thoughts whirling around my head like a hurricane, before I fell asleep again.


	6. Time To Do Some Digging

_I'm not entirely sure what happens in the series (mainly because I've forgotten) so this story will only be loosely based on the events and might be slightly AU_

"Hello?"

"Heeelllloooo?"

Someone was breathing really heavily in my ear so it was just my instinct to flick them.

"OW!"

I opened my eyes slowly and twisted my head around to see Jerome rubbing the side of his forehead.

"What did you do that for?" He moaned.

"Oh, only that you were hovering over me while I was asleep." I shot back. "Why'd you wake me up, anyway?"

"It's almost dinner."

"WHAT?!" I cried. "We were meant to go out!"

"None of us were really in the mood for it." He shrugged. "Nice pyjamas, by the way." He said and nodded at my Elmo nightwear. I pulled a face at him and he smirked.

"I don't want to get up." I groaned into Harry's pillow.

"Sorry? I didn't understand a word you just said."

"Meh." I closed my eyes.

"You're such a charmer, Kayla."

"Meh."

Jerome just chuckled and climbed into Harry's bed next to me.

I rolled over so I was facing him. "This is kinda strange."

"Really? I thought we were friends."

"No, I hate you."

"Aw."

I laughed and propped myself up on my elbows, and looked down on Jerome who was on his side with his face resting on his hand, his fingers tangled in his dirty blond hair.

He looked kind of... sexy.

I was snapped out of my thoughts when Jerome started speaking again.

"No getting up, no dinner." He said, wiggling a finger at me.

"You're so mean." I pouted.

"Well, that is my reputation."

"I thought your reputation was being a slimy, unsympathetic bastard."

"And that too." His famous smirk played on his lips. "Come on, we'll miss dinner."

I lifted my arms up.

"Seriously?" He raised an eyebrow. "Fine." He wrapped his arms around my waist and pulled me up, before one arm slid under my thighs, so he was holding me bridal-style. He trudged out into the hall, skipping slightly.

"God, you're light Kayla." He commented.

"I try my best." I murmured.

He smirked and carried me to the top of the stairs (which we almost fell down) but we made it to the living room in the end.

"I can hear wedding bells." Eddie sniggered next to Patricia.

"Oh yeah, we're totally getting married." I flicked my hair dramatically.

"I proposed to her and everything." Jerome told everyone before he dropped me 'by accident' and I went smack on the floor. Everyone burst into fits of laughter, and after getting over the shock I too started laughing, before Jerome slung me over his shoulder like a fireman.

"Sorry babe." He said, and started spinning around, before he dropped me into his arms bridal style again.

"Yeah, no worries, apart from the slipped disc in my back." I said through gritted teeth. "Let's just hope the little one in here doesn't inherit your idiocy." I said while patting my stomach. At that moment, while I was talking, Trudy and Victor walked in.

God, their faces.

"Uh…" I stammered.

"IT'S A BOY!" Jerome cried and spun me around again, and everyone started laughing again. Jerome finally put me down and we went to our seats while Trudy served us dinner, giving me and Jerome funny looks. Amber whipped out her bejewelled hot pink ultra-modern touchscreen phone and started frantically tapping away at the screen (her screensaver is Justin Bieber-ugh), and Nina's phone vibrated on the dinner table and she read the text Amber had sent her.

Texting someone when they're in the same room?

Seriously?

Amber and Nina both looked at each other with worried faces before both of them started tapping away at their keyboards, and soon Fabian, Patricia, Joy, Jerome, Alfie and Eddie all received texts. I swore Eddie and Jerome groaned.

"Something wrong?" Harry asked.

"Nothing." Fabian answered.

"Um, did I miss anything today?" I asked.

"No." Joy replied without looking up from her spaghetti.

Wow. Talk about contributing to the conversation. I looked at Harry from across the table and he raised his eyebrows.

It was time to do some digging.

After dinner; Nina, Fabian, Amber, Alfie, Patricia, Eddie, Jerome and Joy all 'disappeared' at different intervals. Mara and Mick stayed at the dinner table, pouring over numerous exercise and textbooks and scribbling things on sheets of paper.

"I might hit the sack." Harry declared, and got up and stretched.

"Me too." I yawned.

Mara and Mick nodded.

"Goodnight." They called.

"Night." Me and Harry lazily called back.

We both crept up the wooden stairs and retrieved various recording devices and phones from hidden places in our rooms, and we both met each other on a deserted landing, loaded with our wares. We nodded at each other and sneaked back down the stairs, being careful to avoid the creaky floorboards Jerome and Alfie had pointed out to us a couple of days earlier. We made it to the door under the oak staircase, and Harry took out a paperclip he had saved from Maths class during the day. He prised it open and inserted the end into the keyhole, before twisting and jiggling it around in the lock before hearing an almost silent click.

"Bingo." He whispered. Wow, hours of being locked into abandoned classrooms by football players had really paid off for him.

Harry slowly opened the hidden door, grinning like a madman, before entering and motioning for me to join him inside the small and darkened chamber. I had seen Fabian examine this door thoughtfully the other day, and Harry had even spotted Alfie stumble out of it crazily followed by a laughing Patricia.

They're not the greatest at keeping secrets secret.

We tip-toed inside, shuffling down a dark and dusty stone corridor before coming to a halt outside a dead end. I cursed under my breath at our sudden stop to our little adventure. I knocked on the grey stone, looking for a hollow patch. After plenty of knocking, I came across one and looked over at Harry, whose demeanour brightened. We gave it a hard shove, but nothing happened.

"Jesus Christ." Harry huffed.

"_Nina, are you sure this will work?"_

_"Yes, Fabian, now stop worrying."_

_"We don't have much time!"_

_"I know, we'll do it tomorrow at the latest."_

_"It's past curfew, we have to get back."_

_"Everyone, stop talking. I'm trying to figure this out!"_

Me and Harry froze. We slowly looked at each other before hearing footsteps on the other side of the stone and we both scarpered. Harry clambered up a sheer wall (we're very talented, if you hadn't yet realised) while I crouched near the door we couldn't get past. But because of the angle where I was crouching, nobody would be able to see me, unless they looked behind them. Sure enough, the stone slid open and out walked Nina and co.

"Nina, we're running out of time." Fabian told Nina.

"I know we are, Fabian, just… let me sleep on it." Nina was clearly stressed.

The others walked behind the couple, not saying a word, but looking tired.

They walked around the corner and I heard a door creak open and close, and the sound of a lock clicking into place.

"Crap." I heard Harry whisper from the ceiling. He dropped down and landed on all fours, his face slightly red. I stood up from my hiding place and went over to the door to get out, jiggling the handle a bit before I realised we were locked in.

"Harry, do you still have that paperclip?"

"No." He panicked.

Great.

I reached for a Kirby grip I had in my pocket and twisted it into the keyhole, before another click signalled that I had unlocked it.

"Two Reagans, master locksmiths." I laughed.

We crept outside, being careful not to make any noise, before running up the stairs.

"We need to be careful..." I whispered.

"I kno- AH!" Harry jumped as we walked straight into Nina and Fabian.

"Kayla! Harry! What are you doing up? It's past curfew!" Nina exclaimed, surprised herself.

"Uh, we both needed the bathroom." I quickly made up an excuse.

"At the same time?" Fabian enquired.

"Yeah, she left some stuff in my room." Harry saved it.

"Oh, alright then. Goodnight." Nina nodded at Harry.

"Uh, yeah. Goodnight." Harry walked off to his room.

After a kiss goodnight from Nina, Fabian also wandered off to his room, muttering to himself, before me and Nina both went back to our room, where Patricia had just go in.

"Uh, Kayla?" Nina asked from her bed.

"Yeah?"

"Um, please don't tell Victor or Trudy that we were out of bed after curfew."

"Sure."

"Um, so you won't?"

"I won't tell." I rolled over.

Did she really think I was that much of a snitch?

"Goodnight." Patricia murmured.

"Goodnight." Me and Nina whispered back.

* * *

I slowly opened my eyes, blinking in the sunlight, and rubbed the sleep from my eyelids. I groaned and rolled over, wrapping my duvet even tighter around my body. My alarm clock told me it was half twelve. I looked over at Nina and Patricia's beds, to find that they were gone, and Nina's covers neatly made. My phone buzzed on my bedside table, and it was a text from Harry.

_Just woke up, J is still in bed bt awake. Did u know he talks in his sleep? H x_

I smiled and quickly replied.

_P and N r up. And rlly? Wht does he talk about?_

I sent the text and waited for a reply.

_Thts a secret ;)_

I rolled my eyes.

_Ur such a tease. Plz tell me :P_

I waited again.

_Nope, my lips r sealed_

I locked my phone and threw it back down onto the table. I yawned and sat up, untangled myself from my sheets and duvet, and slipped on my Ugg boots. I shuffled out the door to my room and trudged down the hallways, and after shuffling for a few minutes I lazily knocked on Harry's door. A sleepy 'come in' followed and I pushed the door open, and Harry and Jerome were lying on their beds, their hair messy and only wearing tracksuit bottoms.

"Morning." They both chorused lazily.

"Morning. And I hardly see how those are practical." I commented and sat down on Harry's bed.

"What?"

"Aren't those tracksuit things too warm and don't your chests get cold?"

"Not really." Jerome piped up. I looked over at him, and he was lying on his bed reading the next Walking Dead comic. He was wearing dark grey sweatpants, and his hair was messed up even more. And his chest, god his chest.

He had _abs_.

What was I talking about again?

Oh yes.

"And don't you get cold in those?" Jerome's eyes scanned my body. I was wearing plain light grey cotton shorts and a red vest top.

"No." I snapped back.

The door opened and Alfie walked in, mumbling to himself and shoving his hands in his pockets and turning them out.

"Looking for something?" Jerome asked, not looking up from his comic.

Alfie didn't reply, instead he pulled open a drawer and started throwing random items of clothing out and discarding them on the floor. He checked his pockets one last time before turning around.

"Hey, have any of you seen my phone?" Alfie asked whilst rummaging around in his school bag.

We all shook our heads.

"Well… if you see it…" Alfie left the room.

"I just want to stay in bed aaaallll day." Jerome groaned.

"Me too." Harry yawned.

Jerome stretched and got up, and Harry made a big thing of it and covered my eyes with his hands. I laughed and turned around to face him before pushing him onto the floor and sitting on his back. Jerome turned around from putting on a shirt and glanced down at Harry, who was thrashing around. He laughed and sat down on his bed again.

"Too much effort?" I jokingly asked once Harry had picked himself off the floor.

"Yeah." He sighed, and made a dramatic reach for a water bottle on his bedside table while pulling faces and making noises. "So… far… away…" He said between sharp intakes of breaths.

I threw an inside-out sock that was lying on the floor at the water bottle and it flew into his open palm.

"Wow!" Jerome laughed.

"As Kayla sometimes says, she has a very particular set of skills that can be a nightmare for you if you annoy her." Harry spoke up from making a duvet cave thing. Lord, he's such a kid.

Jerome's face paled before he laughed nervously. "Good to know." He said.

"We should probably go downstairs." Jerome told us.

"No we're not." Eddie said sleepily from the doorway. We all turned around to look at our unexpceted visitor.

"Why not?"

"Because I've been down there, and they're just talking about homework and boring… stuff." Eddie said, his eyes half-closed.

"Well, we need something to do." Jerome groaned.

"I know!" Harry called from under his duvet. He lifted the edge up so it exposed his face. "We should make a fort!"


	7. The Fort and Dress Shopping

"What?" Eddie literally did a double take.

"A fort!" Harry repeated, his duvet still draped around him like a cape.

"What are we, five?" Eddie scoffed, and ran a hand through his hair.

"Well _I _think it's a good idea." I retorted, coming to the defence of my smart but childish brother.

"Yeah, why not?" Jerome shrugged and started clearing a space in middle of the floor.

"Okay then…" Eddie sighed in defeat.

Harry grinned and pulled a cream computer chair out from under Jerome's desk and positioned it about three feet from the edge of his unmade bed. He twisted it around so it was facing the wall, and using a blanket he made a roof for someone to sit under. I lay another blanket on top of the chair and flattened the end on Jerome's bed, and Jerome used some heavy textbooks to keep it from sliding off the covers. Eddie found some planks of wood that were probably meant to be shelves and made another unstable roof for us to hide under. Harry gathered up some pillows to make a barricade around the edge of our highly impressive fort whilst me and Jerome found some more blankets and duvets to drape over the roofs to make walls. Eddie cleared a small opening near Alfie's bed and crawled inside the makeshift structure.

"Oh my god, I haven't made a fort since I was eight." Eddie exclaimed from inside.

Harry finished the final touches and went inside too. "It's better than I thought." He commented. Jerome grinned like the Joker and grabbed me around my waist and pulled me into the fort, before pushing me near Harry's bed under an electric blue blanket. Harry's head popped through a gap through two blankets and laughed.

"What?" Jerome asked him

"I feel like a kid again." Harry replied, before disappearing and laughing hysterically again.

"I'm starting to worry about him." I said and turned to face Jerome.

"I think he drank too much Red Bull." Jerome replied, and used his hands to turn my head towards a small gap underneath Harry's bed, where there was a pile of discarded Red Bull cans.

"Good God, he drank all of that last night?" I asked; a little surprised. I mean, I knew Harry could hold his liquids, but Jesus Christ.

"Yep." Jerome replied, and turned my head to face him.

"Hey guys!" Eddie crawled into the small space where me and Jerome were sitting.

"Hey."

"I've forgotten how fun this is!" Eddie beamed, and crawled away in the direction of Harry.

"They'll never grow up." I sighed.

"Never ever." Jerome added. Jerome followed Eddie, shuffling along the carpet on his knees.

"God, I'm going to get some serious carpet burn." I groaned, and followed Jerome. Suddenly, Jerome's voice erupted from somewhere near his bed.

"THE ENEMY IS NEARING! I REPEAT, THE ENEMY IS NEARING!"

"ROGER THAT, SIR!" Eddie screamed. I heard shuffling and a faint 'Ow!' opposite me behind a blanket wall before a large shadow appeared on the other side and crashed through the blanket, pulling it onto the floor.

"Shit!" Harry cursed. He rolled off the blanket and attached it to the fort, repairing all the damage.

"Kayla- whoa!"

The distinctive voice of Amber filled the messy room.

"Hey Amber." I said while crawling out of the opening. Nina and Patricia appeared, handbags and coats in hand.

"Whoa! What is _that_?" Patricia asked.

"Um, it's our fort!" Harry shouted from inside the blankets.

"Yeah, duh!" Eddie called.

"God, you don't know anything!" Jerome screamed in a sarcastic tone. "And we were just about to defeat the Zithariyns too!"

"Right…" Amber mumbled and glanced at Patricia.

"Kayla, we're going shopping for dresses!" Nina squealed, her necklaces clinking as she jumped up and down.

"For what?" I asked.

"The dance, silly!" Amber exclaimed. Right, I'd forgotten about that.

"But I thought you already had yours?" I asked them and propped myself up on my elbows.

"Well, I do, but you three don't." Amber said while gesturing to me, Nina and Patricia.

"I do have a dress…" Patricia began before being interrupted by Amber.

"But you need a better one." Amber told her.

"And the Fashion Guru speaks again." Jerome scoffed, his voice muffled by the duvet I suspected he was hiding under.

"Kayla! You still need to get dressed!" Nina said after I had stood up.

"Okay then, give me fifteen minutes." I told them and stretched. They nodded and went back downstairs.

"See you later." I called to the boys.

"See you." They murmured and started making machine gun noises and radio crackles. I rolled my eyes and left them to it.

I walked back to my room, pondering on what outfit I could wear. I changed my underwear and leafed through my clothes, before deciding on a white translucent golden studded peter-pan collar top, with black skinny jeans and my cropped black biker jacket. I slipped on some grey boots and a studded cuff, and tied my hair up into a high ponytail with my fringe in a quiff. I slicked on some black liquid liner and red lipstick before I grabbed my black handbag and rushed downstairs. I checked that my phone and purse were in my bag before speed walking into the living room where Nina, Patricia and Amber were waiting, slightly impatiently.

"Is Joy coming?" I asked, not even bothering to ask about Mara.

"No, she has some homework to catch up with, and she has her dress anyway." Patricia told me.

"Oh, okay then."

"Trudy! We're leaving!" Amber called, and scooped up a bright pink handbag with diamante detail.

"Okay girls, be back soon and stay safe!" Trudy came out from the living room and smiled. "Be careful with that one, Kayla." Trudy nodded towards Amber.

"Course I will." I replied and Patricia held the door open for us. The three started chatting, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Victor eyeing us from the top of the stairs. I turned back to Amber who immediately started asking what my colour and shape preferences were for dresses and the image of Victor quickly disappeared from my mind as I walked to the bus stop with three of my new friends.

* * *

We arrived in a town after about half an hour on the bus, and Amber quickly explained to me that this was the next best local shopping location after Manchester. After thanking the conductor and stepping off the bus Amber and Nina pulled to a nearby store with Patricia looking intently at a music shop, before I called out to her to save me. She smiled and followed, making absolutely no effort to rescue me from the clutches of the girls-on-a-mission style teens.

Giggling, Amber clenched my wrist even tighter and dragged me over to a clothes rack which was full of sparkling evening gowns. "Amber, I don't think any of those are Kayla's style." Patricia sighed. Amber ignored her and asked me what size I was. "I'm a UK size eight." I told her, and then looked over at Nina and Patricia pleadingly. Nina smiled and walked over to the rack and started rummaging through the various silks and velvets. She held up a deep purple number with silver trim and looked at it. "I think I might try this one on." Nina slid the hanger over her arm and continued searching and looking at the many dresses.

"Oooh! Patricia!" Amber called. Patricia groaned and walked over to where Amber was at a different clothes rack and the blond held up a dress. "What do you think?" She squealed excitedly. It was a chiffon deep red maxi dress, with black lace edges and detail.

"It's surprisingly nice." Patricia said rather bluntly, but I agreed with her. Amber held it up higher for Nina to see and the American nodded enthusiastically for her approval. Amber squealed again and draped it over Patricia's right forearm before hurrying over to me again. "What's your dress like Amber?" I asked her.

"Oh! It's gorgeous! It's a pale pink chiffon strapless with different layers and a gathered waist with jewel embellishment!" I could tell she was excited for tonight. I pulled out a random dress from the rack, barely looking at it. "Oh my God! That one is _perfect_ for you!" Amber exclaimed from behind me. Before I could open my mouth to speak both Amber and Nina pushed me into an empty changing room and pulled the curtains shut. It took me a few minutes to register what had happened.

Great.

I started taking off my clothes, and glanced at the dress Nina had graciously hung up on the rail. I heaved a heavy sigh before sliding the surprisingly soft material off the hanger.

* * *

I flattened the fabric at my waist.

I looked at myself in the changing room mirror, and adjusted the turquoise straps. This dress showed _way_ too much naked flesh. I nervously turned around to look at my bare back, before I decided it was time to face the music. I drew back the curtains and stepped outside, and turned to face Amber, Nina and Patricia, who were sitting on a velvet plush mini sofa outside. They looked at me and gasped.

I turned bright red and tried to retreat back into the enclosed changing area, but Amber caught me by my right arm. "Kayla, you look beautiful." Amber sighed.

"But don't you think it… shows a bit too much?" I asked, itching to try on a garment that covered more than one square metre.

"No, I think it's gorgeous!" Nina came up behind me and adjusted the straps a bit more.

"Even _I_ think it's nice." Patricia piped up from her seat. "How much is it?"

Nina looked at the price tag hanging off one of the straps.

"It's forty!" She exclaimed. Well, I suppose that's reasonable. "And, it's been reduced from two hundred!"

Okay, even I have to admit that's a steal.

"You _have _to get it Kayla!" Amber ordered.

"But, there might be nicer ones." My voice trailed off.

"No, that one is definitely the best. I wish I hadn't already bought mine." Amber groaned.

"Well, Patricia, are you buying that one?" I asked her.

"Yeah, might as well." She shrugged. "Nina, what about you?"

"I'm not sure. I mean, I like this one, but I think there are nicer dresses in here." Nina put the dress back on the rail.

"Well, let me get changed and I'll help you." I said and went back to the changing rooms. After putting my clothes back on I went over to where Nina was looking.

"Found anything yet?" I asked her.

"Not really." She sighed. I rummaged through at least three rails of clothes before coming across a potential contender.

"What about this one?" I held up the dress I had found and Nina's face brightened.

"Yes! I love it!" She squealed. It was granite grey material with golden jewel detail and many chiffon layers.

"Oh, Neens! It's _gorgeous_!" I heard Amber call across the shop from the tills. Nina rushed off to the changing rooms to quickly try on her dress. She came out beaming, and grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the tills.

Moments later we had paid for our wares and we linked our arms and started off down the road to New Look, giggling all the way. "What shoes should I wear?" Nina wondered aloud.

"I think you should have golden ones to match the jewels." Amber dictated.

"I'm just gonna wear black ones." Patricia sighed as we made our way over to the shoe department.

"Eh, I'll wear black ones." I shrugged. I walked over to the shelves and searched for black ones, preferably with low-ish heels. Patricia found some plain black platform shoes and wandered over to Amber, who was looking over a whole shelf dedicated to pink heels. Me and Nina ended up looking together, and she found some golden heeled sandals which she liked, and she tried them on and walked around him them. "They're perfect." She sighed and twirled around, but almost fell over. I laughed and looked around the corner to find a pair of shiny black strappy shoes. "I might as well get these ones." I walked over to Amber who had picked up some hot pink heels with diamante buckles. "I'm getting these ones!" She squealed. I looked at my phone and gasped when I realised how late it was. "We really should get back and get ready." Nina deduced once I had told everyone the time.

"The dance doesn't start until eight." I told everyone after we had paid.

"Yeah, but it takes me ages to get ready. We were also delayed when you were building that fort thingy." Amber sat down on an empty bus seat. "And anyway, who's your date?" She asked me.

"What?"

"You have to have a date Kayla!"

"Eh, I might just take Harry."

"Well, me and Alfie are going together. And I think you can guess who Nina and Patricia are taking!" Amber giggled. We arrived back at Anubis house, numerous shopping bags hanging off our arms.

* * *

"Ah, good thing you girls are back!" Trudy smiled, still wearing her floral apron. Come to think of it, I don't think she ever takes it off.

We rushed upstairs, but I stopped outside Harry's room. I burst in, not bothering to knock, and I found the fort still standing and all of them lying on their beds, still in their tracksuit bottoms.

"Hey Harry, apparently we have to take dates to the dance, so do you wanna go together?" I asked him in the doorway.

"Uh, sorry Kayla, but I already asked Ellie from French yesterday." He replied.

"Oh."

"Sorry."

"Okay then." I sighed and turned to leave the room, but then Jerome spoke up from his bed.

"Kayla, I'm not going with anyone, I mean, we can go together if you want."

"Sure." I smiled and went back to my room to get ready with the girls.


	8. The Dance

When I got back to my room, Amber, Nina, Patricia, Joy and Mara were already in there. "Oh! Kayla! This is my dress!" Amber squealed and held up her gown. It really was beautiful, and totally Amber with the pink and the meringue layers and numerous jewels. And God, the price tag.

"It's beautiful Amber." I told her truthfully. She beamed and pulled me onto Nina's bed and started holding up tubes of lipstick against my face.

"What does your dress look like, Kayla?" Joy asked. I threw my shopping bag at her and she peaked inside.

"Black… you're brave." She smiled. She pulled it out and let the silky material run through her fingers. She looked at the straps and laughed again. "Wow, you're _really _brave."

"They insisted." I gestured towards Amber, Nina and Patricia.

"I don't know what lipstick your dress will go with." Amber sighed, her style skills failing her this time.

"Um, I might have something." Patricia said and started rummaging through quite a large black polka dot make-up bag. "Ah ha." Patricia handed me a silver tube of lipstick and I looked at it. It was a dark wine red, even darker than Patricia's new dress, so dark it was almost black.

"Oooh! That colour is perfect!" Amber squealed. "Right girls, let's get ready!" Joy handed me back my dress and Amber brought out a large pink box filled to the brim with eyeshadow, lipstick, blusher, eyeliner, concealer, foundation, mascara, lipgloss, nail polish, eyebrow fillers and products I didn't even know the name of. I started shimmying out of my jeans when I realised there was a problem.

"Guys, how am I going to wear a bra?" I asked. They all turned to look at me.

"Uh…"

"I don't know…"

"Just don't." Amber said simply.

"Okay then…" I was slightly wary when it came to me taking my top and upper body underwear off, but the others were far to engrossed with changing into their own dresses. After sliding into my dress I pulled the straps over my shoulders and flattened the material around my stomach down again.

"Wow, that dress really suits you." Joy complimented me.

"Thanks."

Joy was wearing a red and purple number; it was a halter neck with a wrap style middle. Red jewels decorated the belt that she slipped on and purple gems decorated the buckle.

"You look really nice too." I smiled. I glanced over at Mara who hadn't said a word the entire time. She was wearing a simple white dress with wide straps and a high neckline with a satin navy belt. It was nice, but it made her look a little like Alice in Wonderland. Nina had some trouble with hers so I helped her adjust the straps for her.

"Thanks." She smiled.

"You look like a movie star." Patricia spoke up from slipping on her dress. I wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing but I thanked her anyway. I saw her reach into one of her drawers and take something red and wispy out and slip it on, thinking nobody saw her.

Amber sat me down and unscrewed the lid off one of her many nail polishes and started painting my nails. "Amber, I don't need my nails painted." I complained.

"Are you wearing open toed shoes?" She asked. I didn't reply. "I take that as a yes." She continued painting, and when she was done with my toes she started on my fingernails.

"What colour should I paint mine?" Nina asked from across the room.

"Gold." Amber answered, not even looking up from my hands. Patricia started painting Joy's nails red and purple when Amber finished mine and started painting Mara's. The nail painting finished about an hour and a half hours before the start of the dance, and Amber came into her element: hair.

Joy started straightening Mara's hair and Nina started curling Patricia's locks, which left me with Amber. "Okay, I'm thinking of that classic movie style updo with those curls…" I zoned out after Amber constantly chatting about all the old film stars with the luscious curls and short bobs. Amber got out her curling wand and started talking about all the film stars she wishes to meet and all the ones she has already met. The list went on, and finally Amber pulled my hair into a French pleat and fastened it before choking me and everyone else in the room with hairspray. Amber started doing her own hair, still talking about why she is both team Edward and team Jacob while I started on my makeup. Before I could do anything, however, Patricia came at me with a powder puff thingy and started dabbing it all over my face.

"Ugh." I coughed. "God, what is this stuff?"

"It's powder." said Patricia. I looked in the mirror leaning against the wall.

"I look like a vampire."

"No you don't, you look fine." Joy spoke up. I lined my lips with the pencil Patricia had also lent me, and then slicked on the lipstick too. I lined my eyes with the kohl liner before Patricia used a cotton bud to smudge it a little bit. After I used some mascara I walked over to my jewellery box and found some black jewel drop earrings, and after I had put them on I glanced at the clock again.

Twenty minutes.

"Guys, we should be down there in about fifteen." I said to everyone.

"Plenty of time." Amber said, sweeping eyeshadow across her eyelids.

I reached into my wardrobe and pulled out a black clutch that Lucy had packed for 'a special occasion' and put a few essentials in it. With ten minutes until the start of the dance, I quickly sprayed on some Chanel no.05 before Amber attacked me with the hairspray again, and I slipped on the black shoes I had bought earlier. After looking at the girls in the room, we all decided that all of us were ready and Amber squealed.

"This is going to be so much FUN!" She started jumping up and down, which was highly difficult with the many layers of her dress and five inch heels. She and Nina linked arms and left the room with Patricia, Joy and Mara following them, which left me alone for a few seconds. I thought about whether I should bother to bring a cover up but then I decided not to. I started to follow the others, struggling to keep up in heels, which also made going down the stairs living hell. I met the others at the bottom of the staircase, the boys in tuxedos but still looking like they had gotten ready at the last minute. I walked over to Jerome, who was busy talking with Alfie.

"Hey." I did this awkward little wave. This time, Jerome _did _doa double take.

"Wow… um… wow." He stuttered. His eyes focused on the part of my body that I didn't really like him looking at so I asked Jerome where Harry was. "He's gone to meet Ellie." I smiled, but he didn't stop staring at me.

"Is something wrong?"

"No… you just look like Vesper Lynd from Casino Royale." He told me. I looked down at my dress.

"Oh yeah, I do, don't I? This dress might be a knock off version of the black one she wore." I laughed.

"Okay guys, we should all get going." Amber squealed and linked an arm through Alfie's.

Me and Jerome lagged behind the others a bit, and started talking. "Who plans a dance in the first week of school?" I whispered and Jerome laughed.

"Hormonal teenage girls." He whispered back, which made me laugh. I linked my left arm through his and looked up at him.

"Did you straighten your hair?" I asked.

"Uh, no…" He denied. I laughed and reached up to smell him. It sounds weird, but I was right.

"And aftershave?" I laughed.

"Look, it's a special occasion." He said, acting slightly miffed. "Oh shit, I think we lost them."

"What? Where's the dance being held?"

"I don't know."

I couldn't help but laugh. "It's probably in a hall somewhere."

"Right. The sports hall?" He suggested.

"Probably."

We continued our journey and made it to the Sports Hall, but when we looked in it was just a group of thirteen year olds playing football. We laughed and the kids noticed us, and when we turned to leave wolf whistles followed and Jerome flipped them the bird, which made me laugh even more. We went to the drama studio, but that was deserted too. Well, apart from the cleaner in the corner. Both of us went to the main school hall, and that was where we found the dance.

"Shit, I might just go hide in the toilets." I said after looking in.

"Oh God, they've really pulled out the stops." Jerome grimaced and looked at the streamer curtain which provided an entrance to the hall. "We might as well." He sighed. He held my hand and we walked in, and we were greeted by a blur of pink and sparkles.

"Guys! Where have you been? You're ten minutes late!" Amber scolded.

"Sorry, we got lost." Jerome quickly made up an excuse. I spotted Harry at the far end of the hall drinking punch and laughing with Ellie. I didn't particularly know her, all I knew was that she had spectacular ginger hair, green eyes and was about eight inches shorter than Harry.

Jerome caught my line of vision and we both walked over to where he was. "Hey Harry." I greeted him.

"Oh hey… Kayla?" Harry looked at my dress and gave me a slight disapproving 'I'm-meant-to-look-after-you' look. "This is Ellie." Harry introduced us to his date.

"Nice dress." She barely spoke. I could just about hear what she had said.

"You too." I replied. She was wearing a very modest emerald green dress. "This is Jerome."

"Nice to meet you." Ellie smiled.

"You too." Jerome replied.

"Wanna go get a drink?" I asked Jerome. He nodded and we went over to the drinks table, which had been decorated theatrically with gold and silver streamers.

"She has about as much personality as my pet rock." Jerome whispered once we were out of earshot. "Actually, he has more personality than her."

"He? And yeah, I don't know what Harry sees in her."

"Maybe she's just shy, and he was running out of options."

"He could have gone with me."

"Wouldn't that have been a bit awkward though, going to a romantic formal with your sibling?"

I sighed. "Yeah, I suppose."

"You okay?" Jerome asked me, his voice full of concern.

"Yeah, I'm just used to me and Harry doing everything together. The Reagans versus the world." I let out a bitter laugh.

"Well, you have me now." Jerome smirked and put an arm around my shoulders.

"Yeah." I sighed, and nuzzled my head in his neck.

"Want to go and dance?"

"Sure."

Jerome took me by the hand and led me onto the dance floor where other couples, I mean dates, were dancing. He put his hands on my waist, and my hands went to his shoulders, then slid around his neck. We started swaying like the other couples, our eyes never leaving each other. I looked into his crystal blue eyes, which I found I couldn't look away from. I drowned in their sparkling depths, which glittered with trouble and mischief. We must have stayed like that for a while, because slowly couples came and went from the dance floor, but me and Jerome stayed in the middle, our sight on solely each other. "Did I mention that you're beautiful?" He whispered.

"Kind of. You said earlier tonight that I look like a Bond girl." I smirked.

"Does that make me James Bond? And anyway, I didn't mean that."

"What do you mean then, Mr Bond?"

"That you're not just beautiful tonight."

I fell silent. "Well, you're not too bad yourself." Jerome didn't say a word, he just smiled.

"This isn't really dancing, is it?" I asked him.

"Not really." He smirked.

His hands went lower and lower, but uncharacteristically I didn't mind. In fact, I kind of liked it…

KAYLA, STOP IT! YOU'RE TURNING INTO A HORMONAL TEENAGER! A voice screamed at the back of my mind, but I decided to ignore it.

Since when did I start feeling this way about Jerome?

Was it the crawling around in the fort together?

I blame dress shopping with three over excited teenage girls.

I leant closer into him, enjoying the moment, and when he lifted my chin to look at him, my heart fluttered. His famous smirk was displayed on his face, and I wandered whether he could read my mind. Suddenly, Jerome spun us around so he was facing the door.

"That ruined the moment." I muttered.

"Were we having a moment?" He asked with a devilish smile.

I chose my answer carefully. "What do you think?"

He leant closer, his hot breath tickling the left side of my exposed neck. "I definitely was."

"Then why'd you interrupt it?" I whispered.

"Because we're not the only spies in here." He slowly turned us around, and sure enough, Amber, Nina, Alfie, Fabian, Patricia and Eddie were watching us intently, Amber bouncing up and down with excitement.

"Ah."

"Yeah."

"Maybe we should take this outside." I whispered in his ear, and he nodded in agreement. With his left arm still around my waist we left the dance, and when I quickly glanced behind me I could see Amber and Nina watching us, and from their expressions I could tell they were slightly disappointed. Jerome led me into a little courtyard a small distance from the hall, and I suppose the slow dance part was over because I could hear Rihanna blasting from the speakers. I sat down on a mossy and old bird crap splattered bench and Jerome turned around.

"Why're you sitting down?" He asked.

"Um…" I began but he sat down beside me and took off his tuxedo jacket and draped it around my shoulders.

"I'm not cold."

"You look cold." He said plainly, and tightened the jacket.

"I'm okay, seriously."

"Fine." He took the jacket off my shoulders. I started to shiver.

"_See._ You are cold." He said with that I-told-you-so look.

"Maybe a little." I said in defeat.

"I know something that will warm you up." He said with a mischievous grin.

"That sounds dirty." I replied.

"It might be."

I smiled as he got up from the bench and he held out his hand for me to take. Once I was up he bolted for a nearby oak tree and hoisted himself up on a low and splintery branch.

"No. Way." I told him.

"Why not?" He asked from another branch which he had pulled himself up onto.

"In this dress? And _heels_?" I asked rhetorically.

"Okay then." He grinned. Jerome jumped down from the tree onto the dirt below which flew up around his ankles, and I was a bit slow off the mark as he put his arms around my waist.

"WAIT! JEROME-"

But it was too late. He lifted me over his shoulders in yet another fireman lift, and he started walking over to the tree.

"AH! JEROME! PUT ME DOWN!" I shrieked, but my cries fell on deaf ears as Jerome carried me to one of the branches. "I WILL STAB YOU WITH MY HEELS!" But Jerome ignored my threats and climbed up the tree a little bit before sitting me down on one of the branches, and jumped up to sit next to me. Our feet were about six feet off the ground, and he made a big thing about pretending to push me out of the oak.

"This is much better, don't you think?" Jerome sighed.

"Yeah." I rested my head on his shoulder.

"I really like you Kayla." I whispered.

"I like you too, Jerome."

"Now, where were we?" He murmured.

We leaned in closer, our eyes closed, our lips brushed together. Finally, they were touching, and he deepened the kiss, and our lips moved together in perfect sync. But, all too soon, something grabbed at my ankles and I clung onto Jerome for dear life before both of us screamed and flipped backwards.


	9. You've Got The Love

_**I would just like to say thankyou for all the reviews and the great feedback from you all! This chapter has music in it so you might want to listen to the song when it comes to it. I am literally making this up as I go along, so I have no idea how this is going to turn out, so if you have any ideas for the story then just PM me or leave a review :D**_

* * *

We flew backwards, the world becoming a murky blur before we both landed with a huge thump on the ground, but somehow I landed on top of Jerome.

"OW!" He cried.

I scrambled off Jerome and stood up to search for the culprit in the dim moonlight. I spotted a tall figure with messy brown hair, who was laughing hysterically and clutching at their side. I knew that laugh anywhere.

"HARRY!" I shouted. I kicked off my expensive heels and sprinted over to my twin, cursing and shouting death threats, but Harry had already bolted through the doors of the school and back into the dance. "FUCK!" I screamed at the sky. I ran back over to Jerome who was still on the floor, poking at his hairline where I saw a small trickle of crimson blood. "Oh my God, are you okay?" I panicked.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Jerome sat up and winced.

"Does your back hurt?" I asked.

"A little."

"Let me see it."

Jerome took off his jacket and lifted up the back of his shirt. I skirted around to his back and examined his spine, letting my fingers trail over the bone. "You've only bruised it. It'll ache for a while."

"Since when did you get a medical degree?" Jerome joked.

"I don't, you're just gonna have to trust me." I said and kissed him on the cheek. I reached into my purse and brought out a pack of tissues, and used one to dab at the blood on his forehead. "Sorry for landing on you." I chuckled.

"No problem. I'm just glad you didn't spear me with your heels." He smirked. I cleaned the blood off his head a little more; all the while Jerome looking at me intently.

"Sometimes I really hate Harry." I murmured.

"Oh really? Just tonight you were saying 'I'm just used to me and Harry doing everything together. The Reagans versus the world.'" Jerome quoted.

"Shut up." I let out an icy laugh. "There. All better now?"

"Can you kiss it better?" He stuck out his bottom lip, and tried to win me over with puppy dog eyes.

"If you insist." I laughed and pressed my lips to his. "There. Now are you better?"

"Almost." He replied. I laughed again and pulled him up from the dirt and slipped on my shoes again.

"I think my dress is ruined." I sighed.

"Well, all you have to do is brush the dirt off." He said and started brushing the dirt off my dress, and his hands went _everywhere_.

"Hey, don't push your luck Clarke." I said and pulled his hands away from my behind.

"Don't pretend you didn't enjoy it." He said and winked.

"I thought moments ago you were in agony."

"I still am."

"Then how is molesting me making it any better?" I asked. He opened his mouth to say something but I interrupted him. "Actually, don't answer that."

Jerome's arm snaked around my waist again and pulled me closer.

"Does this make us boyfriend and girlfriend?" he asked.

"Maybe."

"Why maybe?"

"It's if you can be committed. I know that you're a player, Jerome."

"You've been speaking to Amber, haven't you?" He asked rather rhetorically, and I nodded. "You're not like other girls."

"In what way?"

"I really, really like you." He pulled me around to face him and he kissed my forehead. I couldn't help but smile. We wandered back into the dance, where I could see Fabian and Nina slow dancing in the middle of the floor, with Amber and Alfie next to them, Patricia and Eddie sharing an iPod in the far corner, and Joy flirting with an older boy from another boarding house. But surprisingly, Mara was sitting alone at a table reading a book, but it was clear that she was fuming. I quickly spotted Mick at the food table, sharing a joke with some blondes who looked like hookers. I felt a little sorry for Mara, being ditched by your boyfriend at a romantic dance and everything, but my sympathy was quickly forgotten when someone grasped my arm. I jumped and turned around and came face to face with Harry, who had an expressionless demeanour. "HARRY! When this dance is over I will personally see to your de-"

"Coulson's here." He said, slightly breathless.

"Oh." I wasn't expecting that. "Wait, what?"

"He wants to talk to us."

I turned back to Jerome who looked slightly confused. "Excuse us for a sec." I told him, and he nodded warily. Harry smiled and took my arm again and started pulling us away from the streamers and music of the dance, with Jerome eyeing us suspiciously. Until we were out of earshot we both didn't say a word.

We knew the drill.

Harry pushed open the doors to the school and strided over to a black shiny car with no licence plate and tinted windows, and one of them rolled down to expose a man in a crisp black suit, an earpiece and dark sunglasses.

"Phil." Harry greeted. He usually does the talking.

"Reagans." Phil replied. "You might want to get in the back."

The rear doors of the car opened and me and Harry climbed in the back, and sat ourselves on soft, cream leather seats. Agent Phil Coulson of SHIELD sat opposite us, with Starbucks coffee in one of the cup holders and a military grade laptop resting on his knees.

"Wow, Kayla that is some dress." Phil said without looking up from his laptop.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked, cutting to the chase.

"Director Fury wants information." Phil replied.

"We don't have any."

"Yes you do."

Harry sighed. "We followed them one night, down this chamber under the staircase. It was weird, it was a rock chamber but there was a stone wall we couldn't get past. We heard them on the other side of the wall, so we hid, and then the wall slid open. Just like that." Harry snapped his fingers.

"How do you think they did it?" Phil asked, slightly curious.

"I don't know. It's definitely not technological." I told them. Phil nodded.

"Director Fury wants to give you some new equipment." Phil began and took out a large briefcase from under one of the seats. "Some new earpieces." Phil displayed the gadgets proudly.

"Cool."

The agent handed us each a slim, black earpiece with glowing blue details, and where the microphone and the earpiece meet, a small SHIELD emblem was displayed. Phil handed us another file containing some basic history of the house, which could come in useful later on in our mission. Harry slid the file into his jacket, and I handed over my earpiece for him to store in his pockets. "This is an important mission, guys. If there is something funny happening in that house it could be a breakthrough for both you and SHIELD." said Phil. "One more thing, Agents Barton and Romanoff may pay the house a visit sometime." He finished.

"Okay." I brightened at the thought of some of my friends from SHIELD visiting.

"I think that's it. You may leave."

"Thanks."

We both climbed out of the car and back into the cold of the night. The vehicle revved and expertly reversed out of the tall gates of the school, and disappeared into the blackness of the night. I turned to go back to the dance and started to walk across the gravel, but Harry started after me.

"Hey! Where're you going?" he called.

"Back to the dance." I replied.

"But we need to go over the file and talk-"

"Look, I just want to be a normal teenager for one night. _One _nightHarry_._"

"But-"

"We'll talk about it tomorrow. Right now I need to get back to my boyfriend."

"BOYFRIEND?" He asked/screamed.

"Yes Harry, my boyfriend!"

"You've barely known him a week!" Harry shouted.

"And what about you and Ellie?" I asked.

"We just came together for the dance! We're not actually dating!" He shouted.

"Look, I know you like to think of yourself as the protective older brother who has to look after his defenceless sister, but I am sixteen years old, Harry. The same age as you. And not to mention we can now legally have-"

"Okay! I'll speak to you tomorrow." Harry dismissed and pushed past me. "I need to take Ellie back, anyway."

I watched Harry sulk back into the dance, leaving me alone outside. Okay, so maybe this hasn't been our first argument, but there's always been someone like Frank or Lucy or the orphanage staff to sort it out, but now we're on our own. I suppose there's always Trudy, but this argument seemed a little more heated than our previous ones. It'll blow over though.

"Hey there beautiful."

Two arms wrapped around my waist again, but a bit too forcefully. "Hey… Jerome?" Suddenly, a pair of lips left a trail of slobbering open mouthed kisses up the side of my neck, before planting them on my jawline and earlobe. "Ugh, that's disgusting, Jerome." I spat. But then I realised it wasn't Jerome.

"You're looking pur-tty tonight." They slurred before kissing me full on the lips. They tasted like alcohol. I quickly pulled away from them and turned around to look at one of the older boys staggering around. "Don't you like my kisses?" He slurred and lunged at me again. I deflected the blow by grabbing his right arm and flipping him onto his back.

"No, not particularly." I replied and kicked him hard in the stomach. Obviously it didn't agree well with the alcohol in his system as he vomited a technicolour rainbow of waste into a nearby shrub. "Have a nice evening." I spat and went back into the dance. Jerome and Alfie were talking in the far corner of the hall with Eddie and Patricia listening intently. I waved and ran as fast as I could in heels over to them where Jerome caught me in his arms.

"Is that a friend hug or a boyfriend girlfriend hug?" Amber squealed from behind Patricia. She bounced over to a beaming Alfie, the many layers of her sparkly dress bouncing with her.

"Um…"

"Uh…"

"IT'S A BOYFRIEND GIRLFRIEND HUG!" She shrieked with excitement.

"Shh!" Nina silenced her from dancing with Fabian.

"What's this about boyfriend and girlfriend hugs?" Mara asked innocently from behind us.

"Jerome and Kayla!" Amber squealed. Mara's face fell.

"Oh. Well, I hope you two are happy together." She smiled and went back over to Mick, who was by this time stuffing his face with the remnants of the snack table. Our Headteacher Mr Sweet came up onto the stage and tested the microphone.

"Ah, students, first we must thank Amber Millington and Joy Mercer for organising this wonderful dance!" A round of applause followed with Amber curtseying a little. "But now, thanks to Amber for bringing forward this idea, we are now having a karaoke contest!"

What. The. Hell.

"Would each House like to elect a boy and a girl to sing?"

Shit.

"Amber!" Nina called.

"Yes?"

"What kind of idea is _that_?" Nina asked the question that was on everybody's' mind.

"I thought it would be a good idea to get all the houses involved and to have some fun!"

Across the hall I could see all the other houses gathering in small groups to discuss who to elect for the contest. They all looked extremely serious and competitive. Mick and Mara walked up to us with Harry following, a knowing smile on his face. "Right, who are we electing?" Mick asked with his hands in his pockets. "Well, I know that I can't sing, so I'm out."

"Same." said Patricia.

"Me too." Eddie sighed.

"Me three." Alfie added.

"Well, I know someone who won the Midtown High talent show _singing._" Harry smirked.

"Correction, I came second." I spat back, but what a mistake that was.

"Kayla! You have to represent Anubis House!" Amber told me.

"Oh Hell no!"

"Please Kayla, and anyway, we have to elect a boy too."

"Harry." I voted.

"Oh, no, no, no, no." He shook his head.

"Please, no other boy is willing to." Nina pleaded.

"What about Jerome or Fabian?" He suggested. Alfie cut in.

"Oh please, Jerome can't sing for his life."

"Oh, thanks mate." Jerome spat sarcastically.

"And besides, Fabian's too shy." Alfie finished.

"And that leaves you two." Nina pointed at us.

"I don't mind singing." Mara suggested but was ignored by the rest of the group.

"Too late. We've decided."

"Actually, you lot decided." I retorted.

"Guys! The others are already choosing their songs!" Amber panicked.

"Kayla, what are you singing?" Nina asked.

"I've already said that I ain't singing!"

"Quit arguing and choose a damn song!" Eddie shouted.

"Fine! I'll do… You've Got the Love by Florence and The Machine." I said in defeat. "What about you, Harry?"

"I'll sing Don't Stop Me Now by Queen."

"Ooh, look who's all willing to do this now."

"Shut up, Kayla."

"Will the contestants please come to the stage." Mr Sweet announced. Me and Harry walked over to the front stage, where I saw one of the hooker blondes laughing with the boy Joy was flirting with. "Okay, so have you chosen your songs?" Mr Sweet asked without using the microphone. "Good. House of Isis will go first." The students from Isis told Mr Sweet their songs and the girl shakily walked up onto the stage.

"I will be singing Firework by Katy Perry." She said quietly. The music started playing from the speakers and she started singing.

"God, this reminds me of Midtown." I whispered into Harry's ear.

"Yeah, except hopefully there won't be any incidents." He whispered back.

"Yeah. Do you remember that Marty kid who tried to do a backflip and broke his collar bone?" I asked and Harry laughed.

"Do I." He whispered.

The girl finished singing and slowly the other houses sent up their own contestants, including the hooker blond singing S&M by Rihanna (obviously) and the older boy sang Sex Is on Fire by Kings of Leon. After a nerve racking wait, it was my turn.

"I will be singing 'You've Got the Love' by Florence and the Machine." I said into the microphone. Amber gave me an encouraging wave. A split second after the music started playing I began singing.

_Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air  
I know I can count on you  
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"  
But you've got the love I need to see me through_

_Sometimes it seems that the going is just too rough  
And things go wrong no matter what I do  
Now and then it seems that life is just too much  
But you've got the love I need to see me through_

_When food is gone you are my daily need  
When friends are gone I know my saviour's love is real  
You know it's real_

_You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love_

_Time after time I think "Oh Lord what's the use?"  
Time after time I think it's just no good  
Sooner or later in life, the things you love you lose  
But you've got the love I need to see me through_

_You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love_

_You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love  
You got the love_

_Sometimes I feel like throwing my hands up in the air  
I know I can count on you  
Sometimes I feel like saying "Lord I just don't care"  
But you've got the love I need to see me through_

Like the other contestants I got a round of applause, but I could hear Jerome whooping and whistling over everyone else. I smiled and got down from the stage and ran into his arms, where he planted a kiss on my nose and forehead.

"You're a great singer." Jerome murmured.

"You think so?" I asked.

"I know so." He replied and kissed me again.


	10. Don't Stop Me Now

Amber tapped me on the shoulder and pointed at Harry who was making his way onto the stage. Me and Jerome pulled apart, his arms still around my waist, and we looked at Harry. "I will be singing the classic 'Don't Stop Me Now' by Queen." He announced and dramatically cleared his throat, which earned a laugh from some of the audience members. The music started playing, and shortly after the beginning note Harry started singing. I've always thought he's more musically talented than me.

_Tonight I'm gonna have myself a real good time  
I feel alive, and the world it's turning inside out Yeah!  
I'm floating around in ecstasy  
So don't stop me now don't stop me  
'Cause I'm having a good time having a good time_

I'm a shooting star leaping through the skies  
Like a tiger defying the laws of gravity  
I'm a racing car passing by like Lady Godiva  
I'm gonna go go go  
There's no stopping me

I'm burning through the skies Yeah!  
Two hundred degrees  
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit  
I'm traveling at the speed of light  
I wanna make a supersonic man of you

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time  
I'm having a ball don't stop me now  
If you wanna have a good time just give me a call  
Don't stop me now ('Cause I'm having a good time)  
Don't stop me now (Yes I'm having a good time)  
I don't want to stop at all

I'm a rocket ship on my way to Mars  
On a collision course  
I am a satellite I'm out of control  
I am a sex machine ready to reload  
Like an atom bomb about to  
Oh oh oh oh oh explode

I'm burning through the skies Yeah!  
Two hundred degrees  
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit  
I'm traveling at the speed of light  
I wanna make a supersonic woman out of you

Don't stop me don't stop me don't stop me  
Hey hey hey!  
Don't stop me don't stop me  
Ooh ooh ooh (I like it)  
Don't stop me have a good time good time  
Don't stop me don't stop me  
Ooh ooh Alright  
I'm burning through the skies Yeah!  
Two hundred degrees  
That's why they call me Mister Fahrenheit  
I'm traveling at the speed of light  
I wanna make a supersonic woman of you

Don't stop me now I'm having such a good time  
I'm having a ball don't stop me now  
If you wanna have a good time  
Just give me a call  
Don't stop me now  
Don't stop me now  
I don't wanna stop at all

Harry finished singing and the hall erupted with applause. He pulled a face and mock bowed, which made quite a few people laugh again. He jumped off the stage dramatically and jogged over to us, a wide grin displayed on his face. "What did you think?" He asked.

"Even if we don't win you've both done Anubis House proud." Nina said and Amber squealed again and pulled us all into a group hug.

"We've probably come fourth or third. Isis and Horus and Sekhmet were pretty damn good." Harry told everyone.

"Looks like you two were the last contestants." Fabian said after looking at the empty stage. Mr Sweet was discussing with the other teachers in the far corner, where I saw the Isis housemates desperately trying to eavesdrop on their conversation. After about ten minutes, Mr Sweet stepped onto the stage again and tried to grab the crowd's attention.

"Excuse me… ahem… everyone…" The audience fell silent, and Jerome and Amber grasped my hands. "We would just like to thank every contestant for taking part. You were all amazing! But after much deliberation, myself and the teachers have decided on the winners!"

"In third place, Horus House!" The house which Ellie belonged to erupted with whoops and cheers.

Amber grasped my hand even tighter and Harry sighed. The girl who sang the cover version of 'Impossible' by James Arthur went up and received the prize, which was a box set of DVDs. Better than shiny plastic trophies, I suppose.

"In second place, Sekhmet house!" Mr Sweet boomed. The hooker blond bounded onto the stage in her tiny cocktail dress and six inch heels and accepted an even bigger DVD box set.

Amber's grip on my hand loosened. We all knew that Isis had won, and by the looks on the Isis housemates' faces they knew too.

"And, the moment you've all been waiting for. In first place, and the overall winner of the karaoke contest 2012, House of…." Mr Sweet paused for effect. You could have heard a pin drop in the hall. No, you could have heard a mosquito die and fall to the ground in the hall.

"…ANUBIS!" He shouted.

It took a few seconds for the news to sink in before Amber epically squealed and everyone started hugging and jumping up and down. "WHAT THE FUCK?" Harry shouted before laughing. We both looked at each other before starting to run towards the stage. Harry made it to the stage first (screw five inch heels) but Mr Sweet wasn't holding a prize. I jumped up onto the stage to join Harry, and Mr Sweet was handed a large looking box. "Don't open it until you get back to your house." Mr Sweet whispered to us. He handed me the box which I gratefully accepted and Harry grabbed the microphone.

"First of all, I would like to thank good ol' Freddie up there. You really did us proud." Harry said and kissed his fingers before holding them up to the ceiling, and the crowd laughed. "But I shall not be thanking our housemates 'cause they did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!" He shouted, and the crowd laughed even more. "Seriously, we sing our hearts out and they sit there stuffing their fat faces with food. YES, I'M LOOKING AT YOU, MICK CAMPBELL!" He screamed. "Thank you very much!" Harry said in his Elvis voice and did an army salute. I laughed and handed him the box and pushed him off the stage back to our housemates.

"Great acceptance speech Harry." Jerome said sarcastically.

"I know right." He replied.

"What's in the box?" Patricia asked.

"Dunno. Sweetie said not to open it until we were back at the house."

"It must be good then."

"It better be."

By this time the crowd were slowly filing out of the hall doors as it was the official end of the dance. "Thanks for persuading me to come." I whispered to Amber and looked over at Jerome. "I've gained something in more ways than one." I giggled. At the entrance Victor and other caretakers were ushering everyone out, with a few teachers beginning the clean-up operation. Jerome caught up with me and Amber and Amber giggled again and ran over to Alfie.

"Did you enjoy tonight?" He asked.

"Definitely." I replied.

"Are you glad you came?"

"Definitely." I replied.

"Good." He said and pulled me into another embrace. "Let's not get lost again, though."

"Definitely." I repeated and yawned.

"You tired?"

"Yes." I groaned. "Falling out of that tree really winded me."

"Correction: Being pulled out of that tree." Jerome joked.

"Yeah, Harry's gonna pay for that."

"I know the perfect way." Jerome said with a twinkle in his eye. Hell, he always had a twinkle in his eye. We climbed up the steps of Anubis house and everyone trudged up the large, oak staircase back to their rooms. Harry was escorting Ellie back to Horus House so he was nowhere to be seen. We passed Jerome's room and I looked at him enquiringly, wondering why he didn't go in. "I'm taking you back to your room." He said and I gave him playful shove.

"Hell, I don't need an escort." I muttered and Jerome laughed. "I need to go to the bathroom anyway."

"I'm not watching you take off your makeup, Kayla."

"Good."

"I'll say goodnight here, then." He said as we stood in the doorway of my room.

"Goodnight then."

"Aren't you forgetting something?" He smirked. I knew what he was playing at.

"Nope." I said with a smile.

"Okay then." He smiled and started to walk away. My urges overpowered my pride.

"Wait!" I called and ran up to him. I stood on my toes to gain an inch of height and I caught his lips with mine. I broke apart from him after a few seconds and opened my eyes to see him smirking. "Goodnight." I said again, but he had backed me against the doorway of my room again. He lifted my chin to look at him, and I smiled, knowing what was going to happen next. He slammed his mouth back onto mine, and the shock of it made me open my mouth, and he took that opportunity to slip his tongue past my lips. We battled for dominance, but I was too tired to last long. His hand rested on the outside of my left thigh and my hands tangled in his dirty blond hair. And I thought that Alec was good. He finally pulled himself away from me, leaving me slightly breathless, and smirked. "Goodnight." He whispered in my ear and walked back down the corridor.

I touched my lips where my lipstick had smeared slightly and went to the bathroom, where I found nobody was occupying it. I looked in the cabinet and found some heavy-duty makeup wipes and started taking off all my eyeliner, lip liner, foundation and lipstick until it hurt to scrub it anymore. I washed the last of the makeup off with cold water and started brushing my teeth. After finishing I walked back down the corridor back to my room, where I saw Fabian kiss Nina goodnight. I smiled at them and threw myself down onto my bed and kicked off my heels and started to undress, and pulled out some clean pyjamas from my chest of drawers and dressed quickly, wanting to get a decent night's sleep. At around eleven o'clock (the dance had gone on late for the 'special occasion') Patricia had gotten back from the bathroom along with Nina and they too collapsed onto their beds. I undid the French pleat Amber had done for me and took out all the grips, and I decided to wash out the hairspray the following morning, and looked over at my roommates who were now also in their pyjamas.

"Well, tonight was fun." Nina said after climbing under her covers.

"In more ways than one." Patricia winked and Nina threw a pillow at her and we all collapsed into giggles.

"Are we doing anything tomorrow?" I asked.

"I don't think so. We're all gonna be too tired, probably." Nina replied and yawned.

"Well, goodnight then."

"Goodnight."

I clambered underneath my duvet and rolled over to face the wall, and I quickly drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

* * *

The next morning I awoke quite peacefully, but I'm not a morning person so I still groaned and rolled over. Much like other mornings, Nina and Patricia's beds were empty and neatly made. I wish I could stay in bed aaaallll day. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked at Nina's alarm clock, to find that it was only half eleven. I found my purse from last night still on the floor near my bed and rummaged around inside it before pulling out my phone. I found a text from Jerome and smiled.

_I've just woken up and Harry is still asleep. Can you come down?_ _I'm bored. Jx_

It was from ten minutes ago. I quickly replied to him saying that I had just woken up and that I would be down soon. I didn't even bother changing, I'm sure Jerome won't mind that I'm in my freshly laundered Elmo pyjamas. I crawled grudgingly out of my warm bed and headed for Jerome's room, secretly hoping that Harry had awaken and was having breakfast downstairs, leaving me and Jerome alone. I knocked on their door, and I heard a lazy 'come in' from the other side of the door. I pushed it open a little and was pleasantly surprised that it was only Jerome, his hair still messy and still only in his tracksuit pants. I grinned and ran in, and I threw myself onto his bed and clambered on top of him.

"Oof! Jesus Kayla." He laughed and pulled me closer against his chest. I kissed him on his nose and giggled, before rolling off him and onto my side.

"Ugh." A voice groaned from across the room. I jumped and looked over at Harry's bed, where I could just about see some bright blue eyes peeking out from under Harry's Batman duvet cover.

"Shit Harry! I didn't know you were in here!" I cursed.

"Yeah, well I'm going to get breakfast anyway." Harry sighed and went over to the door, but paused. "You kiddies have fun." He smirked and Jerome threw another pillow at him. Harry ran down the corridor still in his pyjamas and I could hear him say. 'Yes Amber, these are my pyjamas, not a clown's costume'. I snuggled up to Jerome's naked chest and listened to his heartbeat. I lay in his arms for a few silent minutes before deciding I was thirsty and got up from his bed, and found a half empty Red Bull can near Harry's bed and I bent down to pick it up. I heard Jerome groan behind me, and I smiled and bounded over back to his bed, where he was now sitting upright. I sat down on his lap, but I gasped and immediately jumped back up again.

"EW! Jerome!"

"What? I am a _male_." He said in his defence and crossed his legs to hide the, uh, 'situation'. I laughed and sat down on him again, teasing him, and he still tried to disguise it. I kissed him passionately again and deliberately skimmed my hand over his lower body and he tried to stifle a groan.

"You're such a tease, Kayla." He murmured.

"I know." I suddenly jumped up again and clasped my hands together. "Come on, put on a shirt, I'm hungry and need some breakfast."

"Okay, I'm hungry too." He picked up a shirt that was lying on the floor and pulled it on, but stayed seated.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm not going down like this." He said and looked at his trousers. Oh yeah. I nodded and sat down beside him again and held his hand. I rested my head on his shoulder and Jerome kissed my nose, and he started talking about a plan of a prank on Harry. After a few minutes he leapt up and pulled me up with him. "I'm so hungry." He said and I nodded again, and holding hands we left the messy bedroom.


	11. Harlem Shake

**_I know this story is really random, but teenage lives are, aren't they? I know me and y friends talk about and do random things, so just because there is a life threatening curse on the buliding doesn't mean they can't have fun xD (And this chapter is basically the title- and when I looked at the HOA archive the other day while I was halfway through writing it there was a story with the Harlem Shake in it, so I'm not copying!)_**

* * *

We ran down the stairs, laughing and shouting as we went, but both of us at the exact same time slipped at the bottom of the staircase and skidded dramatically into the living room, Jerome doing jazz hands. Harry and Eddie were both sitting at the counter stuffing their faces with toast, and in Eddie's case, a stack of pancakes drizzled with maple syrup. I shuffled over to Harry and put my arms around his neck. "Morning." I murmured. "Actually, it's afternoon now." I added as an afterthought. Harry grunted in response and Eddie nodded, his cheeks so full of pancake he looked like a chipmunk. I went over to the fridge and brought out the large Sainsbury's carton of orange juice and took a few chugs.

"Don't let Trudy see you do that, she'll _never _forgive you." Eddie said after swallowing his mouthful of breakfast, then started shovelling the pancakes in his mouth again.

"Good to know." I replied and put the carton back. Jerome started whistling Monty Python's 'Always Look on the Bright Side of Life' and rummaged around in various cupboards before taking out a box of Coco Pops and setting it down on the counter.

"The Holy Grail of cereal." He joked and brought out two bowls and spoons from another cupboard. I reached into the fridge again and got out the milk as Jerome started pouring the cereal into the bowls. We added the milk and we both sat down and started eating, and all you could hear was Harry crunching on his toast.

"What're we doing today?" Harry asked in between mouthfuls of bread and jam. Eddie shrugged.

"Patricia's ditched me for Amber and Nina and Joy today. Have no idea where they are." Eddie told us.

"Video games?" Harry suggested.

"Maybe." Jerome replied. "Do you know where Alfie is?"

"No. Think he's with Nina and co."

"Harry, do you remember making videos at the orphanage?" I asked him as an idea popped into my head.

"Yeah."

"So…?" They really weren't catching on.

"Oh! You want to make a video?" Harry asked.

"Yeah!"

"Well, what ideas do you have?"

"Uh, I dunno."

The counter fell silent, with Jerome and Eddie milling over the idea of a video. They were deep in thought, as I could see Jerome straining to think of something. But it was Eddie who came up with the million dollar (or should that be pound?) idea.

"What about a Harlem Shake video?" He suggested, still stuffing remnants of a pancake into his mouth.

"What's a Harlem Shake?" Jerome asked us and me, Harry and Eddie mock gasped.

"You _don't _know what the Harlem Shake is?" Eddie asked, still pretending to be shocked.

"Wow, some of you boarding school kids are really deprived." Harry sneered.

"Pfft, forget Gangnam Style, the Harlem Shake is the new dance craze." I told him.

"It's basically a person dancing on their own to this particular song, and around the fifteen second mark, there's a jumpcut and everyone goes absolutely bonkers." Harry explained.

"Bonkers?" Eddie asked.

"Yes dear American Eddie, bonkers. If you don't know what it means then Urban Dictionary it. You've clearly not been in the UK for long." Harry replied.

"Well, let's do it then. I have a camera upstairs." Jerome declared and after eating the last of his cereal he bolted out of the door and charged upstairs.

"Where's Jerome heading to?" Alfie asked after he appeared in the doorway.

"Oh! Alfie! You have to help us with something!" I waved him over.

"Sure. What's up?"

"Well, we're making a Harlem Shake video and we might need some extras." I told him.

"Cool. But what's a Harlem Shake?"

"Shit, you boarding school numpties really are deprived." Harry remarked.

"We'll show you in a minute, but right now you need to get the craziest costume you can. The crazier the better."

"Okay then." Alfie grinned and ran upstairs too.

"Same goes for you two." I said to Harry and Eddie.

"Yes sir." Harry saluted and pulled Eddie away from his precious pancakes. I leapt up the stairs two at a time, and ran into Jerome on the landing, who was holding a very expensive looking Canon camera. "Hey, if you need a costume me and Alfie have built up quite the collection over the years."

"Okay then."

I followed Jerome back to his room where Alfie, Harry and Eddie were leafing through a massive trunk in the far corner. Well, when I say leafing, I mean throwing out garments onto the floor behind them.

"Oh my God, a feather boa!" Alfie exclaimed, and wrapped the hot pink feathers around his neck.

"Who's going to start the video?" I went over to them and asked.

"Eh, I will." Harry shrugged and found a silver morph suit, Mario hat, CSI style sunglasses and a neon green belt. "This is puuuuuurfect!" he said in his mock camp voice. Eddie found a life vest, snorkel, flippers and washing up gloves to wear, and Alfie found a cowboy hat, neon yellow tutu and a Gryffindor Hogwarts tie. I found a Hawaiian grass skirt, purple sparkly wig, a lei and a red and grey woollen bobble hat. Jerome chose some hideous black and yellow Bermuda shorts, an Australian cork hat, flip flops and blue surgical gloves. After some more rummaging he snatched the feather boa from Alfie's neck, almost choking him.

"Before we change, we have to start with Harry dancing in the middle in his costume on his own." Eddie dictated. Harry nodded and started to change into his morph suit.

"Oh, God Harry!" I exclaimed and covered my eyes.

"But we're family, Kayla." Harry teased. "Okay, you can look now." But his voice was muffled as his whole face was covered in the silvery latex. Eddie taped the CSI sunglasses to Harry's head as his ears were covered and Harry placed the Mario hat on his head and tightened the belt around his waist.

"Okay, the rest of us just sit around and ignore Harry making an idiot of himself in middle of the floor. We're gonna have to set the camera up in the corner and put it on a timer." Jerome nodded and retrieved a tripod from his desk and set it up on the bedside table near Alfie's bed. Eddie yawned.

"Tough night?" I asked him.

"Yeah, me and Patricia got in a little late."

I raised my eyebrow. "No! Not like that." Eddie redeemed himself and laughed. "I wish though…" he muttered.

"All set!" Jerome called. I clapped my hands together.

"Okay guys! Let's roll." We took our places in the room. Jerome was at his computer at his desk, Eddie was pretending to listen to music, Alfie was sleeping on his bed and I was reading a comic. The timer counted down on the camera and I started playing the music aloud on my iPod. But as soon as Harry started doing the Harlem Shake beginning dance, Jerome and Alfie promptly burst into fits of laughter.

"What?" Harry asked with a hand on his hip, which made him look even stupider.

"I-didn't know- that- was the- Harlem Shake!" Alfie cried between laughs.

"Oh my God, I can't breathe!" Jerome cried, tears in his eyes. After the two boys had calmed down we restarted the video, much to Harry's annoyance. The timer ticked, and the camera started recording and Harry started dancing, and in the corner of my eye I could see both Jerome and Alfie just about holding back their smiles and laughter. We recorded Harry for about twenty seconds which left us time to edit, and I gathered up my costume to get changed into in my own room.

"Don't you trust us?" Eddie smirked and pulled his shirt off.

"No, not really." I replied and went back to my own room. I found a plain blue vest top to wear with my hula skirt and I tied my hair up to make wearing a wig easier with a hat. I added some hot pink lipstick and blue eyeliner after I had got changed and bounded back down the stairs to the boys' room, and after entering the room again I laughed.

"What?" Eddie asked with a mouthful of plastic.

"You look so stupid." I replied.

"Says Lady GaGa." Jerome spoke up from pulling on the surgical gloves.

"Yeah." Alfie agreed and stepped into his tutu.

"Are you going shirtless?" I asked Jerome.

"Yeah, I mean, it goes with the Bermuda shorts, does it not?" Jerome said and pulled a strongman pose.

"Ha ha." Eddie laughed. "These flippers feel weird." He told us and started doing an Irish jig. "Look." He pointed at his feet. "They're too big."

"Shut it, whiner." Harry said and started spinning around on Jerome's computer chair.

"Are we ready?" I asked them. They all nodded. "OKAY THEN!"

"Oh, one more thing!" Eddie held up his finger and dashed down the hallway. He quickly returned holding an already blown up rubber ring. "This is puuuuuurfect!" he imitated Harry.

"PLACES EVERYONE!" Alfie shouted and jumped onto Harry's bed. Eddie took his place next to Jerome's bed and Jerome positioned himself near Harry, and I took my place behind him. The timer started counting down again and the click went off. Harry carried on his thrusting dance, and Eddie started pretending to swim across the room with his snorkel and rubber ring, Alfie started jumping up and down, Jerome started doing a camp version of the Macarena and started slowly inching sideways to the camera, and I started running around in circles and hitting everyone on the head with an inflatable hammer Jerome said he had won from a fair in the summer holidays. All was going well until Alfie jumped and slipped off Harry's bed and onto Jerome, and they both screamed and fell on the floor. This time it was me, Eddie and Harry that burst into fits of laughter.

"CUT!" Jerome screamed. "CUT!"

Eddie, who was still laughing, wandered over to the camera and stopped recording. Alfie clambered off Jerome who too started smiling at the incident, and then started laughing like there was no tomorrow. And at that very moment, the door opened.

"Guys, Trudy's made biscuits and is wander- what the hell!?" Fabian stopped in his tracks in the doorway after looking at our attire. We looked at him like we were completely normal and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with us. "Well… as I said… she's made biscuits." He muttered and left.

We all started laughing hysterically again, and I could just about hear Fabian talk to Amber in the hallway.

_'No Amber, I wouldn't go in there if I were you. No, just don't.'_

That just made me laugh even more. Jerome pulled the computer chair back up to his desk and connected the camera to the computer to start editing. Eddie was having a laughing fit and rolling around on the floor, Alfie was struggling to drink the glass of water Harry had given him after he had said he couldn't breathe, and Harry himself was desperately trying to pull off the morph suit and really failing. I climbed onto Jerome's lap and rested my legs over his thighs so I was sideways. After I had pulled the purple sparkly wig off my head and pulled out my hair tie Jerome took off his cork hat and placed it on my head.

"Suits you." He mused. I nodded dramatically and pecked him on the lips. Jerome opened Windows Movie Maker and uploaded the clips, and he waved Alfie, Eddie and Harry over to watch the unfinished footage. It began with Harry thrusting and Alfie and Jerome laughing, and when Jerome played the last clip we all laughed out loud again when Alfie fell onto Jerome. "Okay, so what do I need to do?" Jerome asked.

"Do fifteen seconds of the final clip of Harry dancing on his own, and mute the sound." Harry told him, whose morph suit was now twisted with one of his arms through the neck and the other folded inside the suit over his chest.

"'Kay."

Jerome cut the first clip to fifteen seconds and rid the video of sound, and pasted the other clip after the first one. He plugged my iPod into one of the computer jacks and copied the Harlem Shake audio into his files and added the music to the video. "Now what?"

"Cut the clip to when there's a sound like a lion roaring and make the last three seconds slow motion." Eddie told him. Jerome nodded and cut the clip.

"Oh my God! It's Alfie falling onto Jerome in slow motion!" Harry cried and started laughing again.

"Shall we watch the final product?" Jerome asked everyone.

"Hell yeah!" Alfie shouted. Jerome pressed play and let the comedy unfold. We laughed at Eddie's swimming routine, and me hitting him on the head and he faked drowning, and at Jerome's camp Macarena, and we laughed especially hard when Alfie fell onto Jerome in slow motion.

"Ha, we have to show the others this." Eddie said and started clapping.

"Yeah, but I'm getting changed." I said and got up from Jerome. I ran upstairs again, still with the cork hat, and changed into a Metallica concert t-shirt, black converse and grey leggings 'cause I'm lazy. I kept the hat on and bounded down the stairs again. I caught up with Jerome and the others at the top of the stairs and his arm slid around my shoulders, and he kissed me on the top of my head. In his hand I could see a CD which he obviously had burned the video on to. Without warning Harry screamed "WOO HOO!" and slid down the bannister and grabbed my hat, placing the garment on his head as he slid down the wood. I didn't even bother chasing after him. We entered the living room where conveniently everybody else in the house was lounging around and eating the biscuits Trudy had made.

"EVERYONE!" Jerome shouted and clapped his hands. "WE ARE GOING TO SHOW YOU A SHORT VIDEO, IN WHICH MYSELF, KAYLA, HARRY, EDDIE AND ALFIE ARE STARRING IN!"

The others gave us some weird looks, and Fabian started laughing, guessing that our exceptionally awesome costumes had something to do with it. Jerome hurried over to the DVD player and turned it on along with the TV, and slid the disc into the reader. He rushed back to the sofa where Alfie and Eddie were sitting and pulled me onto his lap, ready for the 'show'. It started with Harry, and immediately our housemates started laughing, and when it came to the jumpcut with Eddie swimming and Jerome's Macarena everybody was in stitches. And when it came to Alfie slipping onto Jerome in slow motion everybody was in tears.

"OH MY GOD! _WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!"_


	12. We're Hysterical, Mate

_**Whoa, sorry for not updating!**_

* * *

"OH MY GOD! _WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT?!" _Patricia screamed with tears in her eyes.

"It's a Harlem Shake video." Mick explained and started laughing again.

"Wow, it was epic!" Nina cried.

"Why didn't you invite us to join you?" Fabian asked.

"We had no idea where you were. We got up really, really late and Alfie walked in on us having breakfast." I replied.

"Fair enough." Fabian shrugged and grinned again. The only one who wasn't laughing was Mara, with her head in a science textbook and deep in concentration. Probably for the upcoming Science test which I still hadn't revised for. I sighed and grabbed one of Trudy's biscuits off the plate Fabian was passing around.

"We should make more videos like that." said Eddie.

"Uh huh."

"Now, who's going to help me with dinner?" Trudy asked as she walked into the living room, wearing a different floral apron.

Everybody screamed 'NOT ME!' and stood up to bolt out of the room but Trudy had already chosen her victims. "Fabian and Alfie!" she called.

"Crap." Alfie muttered and wandered over to the kitchen counter, Fabian groaning and following Alfie. The phone out in the hallway started ringing and Trudy rushed out to answer it.

"Harry! Kayla! It's for you!" she shouted. Harry beat me again to the phone and took it from her. Our other housemates were being really nosy and gathered in the living room doorway as Harry began speaking to the person on the other end of the phone.

"Yeah, yeah. It's been great. We've already made some new friends and settled in. Yes, the rooms are nice and the food is edible. Trust you to ask about school! But yeah, we're doing fine. Oh, so you heard about the dance? It was alright. Come on, you know I don't like those kinds of things. Yes, I'd much rather had been playing Skyrim. Miss you too. I don't miss the cop sirens though. Yeah. Yeah. Okay then. Want me to hand you over to Kayla? Yeah, bye. Love you." Harry finished talking and handed me the phone.

"Hey."

**_"Kayla! It's nice to hear you again!"_**

Oh, I never get tired of hearing Lucy and her native New York accent. "It's nice to hear you too."

**_"So, how's the first week of school been?"_**

"It's been okay."

Lucy chuckled. **_"Alright then, made any new friends?"_**

"Yeah. There's Nina, Patricia, Amber, Joy, Alfie, Eddie, Fabian, Mick..."

**"That's good." **Lucy replied. **"And I hope you're not already in trouble, young lady."**

"No. Well, not yet, anyway."

"KAYLA'S GOT A BOYFRIEND!" Harry screamed from behind me.

**_"What's that Harry's saying?" _**Lucy asked with a stern tone.

"N-Nothing."

**_"Something about a boyfriend?"_**

"Uh…"

**_"Kayla Andrea Reagan!"_**

"What?"

**_"You're too young to have a boyfriend!"_**

"I'm sixteen!"

**_"You've only known him for a week!"_**

"I know… but I really like him!"

Lucy heaved a heavy sigh. **_"I just don't want your heart to be broken, sweetie." _**

"It won't be."

**_"Well, I hope you keep your promise. Has he been treating you right?"_**

"Lucy!"

**_"A mother has to know these things!"_**

I sighed. "Yes, he has been treating me right."

**_"Good. If he doesn't you let me know and I will give him-"_**

"Lucy!"

**_"Yes?"_**

"You're rambling again."

**_"Oh, sorry. Is he the same age as you?"_**

"His name is Jerome. And yes, he is."

**_"Good. Well keep me updated on everything. Especially this boyfriend of yours who-"_**

"Goodbye Lucy."

**_"Oh, what? Yes, goodbye! Take care!"_**

"Yeah, speak to you soon. Bye!"

I hung up and put the phone down. A pair of arms immediately wrapped around my waist and spun me around. Jerome craned his neck the tiniest of measurements to kiss my nose. "Talking about me with Lucy?" He asked.

"I tried to avoid the subject." I replied. He smiled and pressed his lips to mine again.

"It's getting hot in here, so take off all your clothes…" Harry sang behind us and I shot him a look. Jerome laughed and made a big thing of pulling his jumper over his head slowly, swinging it around and throwing it onto the floor dramatically. My phone vibrated in my jean pocket and I looked at it, finding out that I had a text message.

**_At the gates. Come alone. That means no Harry._**

Guess I really was in trouble. "Damn, I think I might have left my coat outside. I'll go and find it."

"I'll come with you." Jerome offered.

"No, it's fine." I answered. I quickly made my way over to the school gates, the freezing night air biting at my skin. And, of course, there was another dark car at the gates with tinted windows. I tapped the glass and a rear door opened, and I climbed inside to find Phil Coulson and Nick Fury, director of SHIELD himself. I must be in big, big trouble if he flew all the way from the States to see me. "Agent Reagan." He greeted.

"Director." I greeted back. "Why am I here?"

"Ah, always getting to the point." Fury chuckled. "That means I will, too." He paused. "We were concerned about you."

"Why do we always meet in dark cars- wait what?"

"Er- after what happened, um, in your last big mission…" Phil began.

"Seriously, I'm okay." I reassured them and let out an icy laugh.

"But what about this boyfriend?" Fury asked.

"Oh, so now you're listening in on my phone conversations?"

"Correction: We're listening on _everyone's _phone conversations."

"Wow, you sure are thorough."

"We don't want to miss anything."

"But I thought that's what me and Harry are here for."

"Just in case."

Coulson started tapping away on his keyboard. "So you came all the way across the Atlantic because you were '_concerned'?_" I asked Fury.

"Well that and this…" Fury handed me a pale brown folder. "I personally saw to its arrival."

"Must be important then."

"Oh, you have no idea. That," Fury pointed at the folder in my hands. "Is what happened last year." I eagerly opened the folder and looked at the pictures.

"Oh my God." My mouth fell open in surprise. "And you're sure that this isn't technology?"

"Pretty sure. And if it isn't…" Phil trailed off. "…then Earth is in deep dog shit."

"Have you asked Thor about it?" I enquired.

"Yeah, and he had no idea what it was so he asked Odin, and he didn't have a clue either." Fury sighed.

"So I'm guessing I give this to Harry inside inconspicuously as not to raise suspicion?"

"You're catching on." Coulson spoke up. "You're a good agent Kayla, but not quite good enough."

"I know, Harry has the sensible agenty skills."

"But you have the instincts."

"I'd best get going. You know, you should stay here in the UK a while longer. See London Bridge, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament…"

"I'll keep that in mind." Fury grinned. "Good luck, Kayla."

"You too." I hopped out of the car and stuffed the folder up my shirt.

"Hey, didn't you find your coat?" Jerome asked me once I had got inside the house again.

"Uh, no. Must be upstairs." I slipped Harry the folder and he raised his eyebrows. "I need to finish my Civil War essay." I kissed Jerome on the cheek and ran upstairs back to my room. After jumping onto my bed and kicking off my shoes I jammed some earphones into my ears and started playing the angriest music I could find on my iPod. Nirvana blasted from the tiny speakers and shocked my brain into angry mode, making my feet tap in time with the drums. Harry says I have an annoying habit of mouthing words to a song but not actually singing. "You either sing or you don't!" he says. Pfft.

"Hey! HEY!" Someone shook me violently, making me jump and whip round to face them.

"Jesus Harry, give me a heart attack why don't you?" I spat and yanked the buds out of my ears.

"I looked the through the folder." Harry said and waved it in the air.

"And?"

"Weird shit." he replied and smacked me on the head with the papers then threw them onto my bed next to me.

"What do we do about it?" I asked him.

"Nothing yet, this crap looks dangerous."

"And yet a group of naïve and totally unsuspecting teenagers are running around with this crap underground with no means of self-defence?"

"Yep."

"Wow, you overwhelm me with your concern."

"Shu'up."

"Well, we have to do something."

"We'll wait a while longer, I mean, we have the rest of the year."

"Wait? Wait until someone like Amber kills herself because she was stupid enough to involve herself in this?"

"Nobody's gonna die, Kayla."

"How do you know that? A minute ago you were saying that this shit was dangerous."

"Okay! But we can't involve ourselves too much, they'll get suspicious."

"But-"

"Just trust me on this one." Harry shoved his hands in his pockets and wondered out of the room.

"Uh, don't tell Amber what I said." I added.

"Bye Kayla." Harry called without looking back. Sighing, I turned off my iPod after deciding that my ears and brain had withstood enough rock and if anymore blasted from the device they would implode. "Wait, what day is it tomorrow?" I asked myself aloud. "Shit, Monday." I groaned and buried my head in my pillow. The door opened and Nina walked in.

"Are you alright Kayla?" She asked after looking at me.

"Yeah, absolutely fine." I said sarcastically.

"You know, after spending a year here I have noticed that the British use sarcasm a lot." Nina said and sat down on her bed.

"No shit." I mumbled into my pillow.

"At least you got through the first week of school."

"And there's plenty more to come." I sat up and said with a fake smile, making Nina laugh.

"Dinner's almost ready. It's spaghetti night."

"Great. More of Fabian and Alfie's fabulous cooking."

"Yeah. Just remember that there are takeout menus in the top left cupboard in a bucket." Nina reassured me and retrieved a book from a shelf. "You coming?"

"Yeah." I stretched my reply into half a dozen syllables and dragged myself off my bed. Following Nina downstairs I could smell the faint stench of something burning and smiled at the thought of Alfie putting out a fire with a tea towel. Random, I know, but I couldn't help it. Everybody else was already sitting at the table, minus Fabian and Alfie who were in the kitchen with Trudy. "Has anybody else finished the Civil War essay?" Mara asked us. There were murmurs of 'no' 'not yet' and a 'what? We have homework?' from Eddie.

"When's it due?" Nina asked.

"Tomorrow! I thought you'd all have it finished by now!"

"Maybe I can fake being sick and have a day off tomorrow…"

"Jerome, that's called skiving."

"I bloody well know what it's called by now."

"What?"

"Nothing, Trudy."

Fabian and Alfie set some large bowels of spaghetti and Bolognese sauce on the table and everyone dived in. "God, you're all like a pack of vultures to an animal carcass." Harry complained when the meatball he had tried to nab had been speared by another fork.

"Well, if we are animals in the Sahara I vote that we have a strict pecking order. Strongest first."

"I believe it's called ladies first, Jerome."

"Oh ha ha."

"Can someone pass the parmesan?"

"Ha ha, you say parmesan funny."

"Shut up you bumbling yank."

"Gasp! That's insulting."

"Gasp? We're not in bloomin TOWIE."

"OMG! I love TOWIE!"

"Oh God, they wear so much fake tan they're basically orange."

"I know. Who actually _likes _TOWIE?"

"I do. Just because I don't like periodic dramas like you-"

"In my defence Downton Abbey is very educational."

"Who cares about education? The minute I walk out of the school building my mind just completely shuts down."

"Jerome, didn't you say that the other day then walk into a pole?"

The table erupted with laughter after Alfie had innocently recounted the moment Jerome walked out of French class the previous Wednesday, and Jerome put his fork down on his plate and clenched his jaw, looking at Alfie through the corners of his eyes, setting the rest of us into even more hysterics.

"In my defence, that pole was wrongly positioned on the pavement."

"It was next to a wall!" Alfie cried, "And you were veering to the left!" Alfie jumped up to demonstrate. He started walking, veering to left then shouted "My mind just completely shuts off!" and walked into the doorframe.

"Fair enough! I was feeling a little off that day…"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, mate."

"Okay, I am sick of everyone ganging up on me!" Jerome shouted but started laughing.

"We're not ganging up on you… we're just reliving a funny moment." I teased.

"It's not funny for me. I got a nasty bruise from that," Jerome tapped his forehead.

"Speaking of which, where's it gone? It's only Sunday," Fabian began. "Are you wearing make-up?"

"No I am not!" Jerome replied after some sniggers, slightly miffed. "Healing easily is one of my natural… capabilities."

"Ew, I don't want to know about your 'natural capabilities'." Patricia said with disgust, making all of us laugh again.

"Moving on…" Amber began. "I want to hear about New York!"

Harry swallowed a large mouthful of pasta before answering. "Um… it's… big?"

"I knew that silly!" Amber squealed. "What's the shopping like?"

"Uh, there are probably just enough shops to supply you with clothes for about half a year." I told Amber with a smile, and everyone laughed again.

"Well that's not very much at all…" Amber muttered, obviously not getting the joke.

"Anyway, back to Jerome walking into that pole, Harry does that all the time!" I told everyone.

"Well, excuse me for just sitting here quietly and eating my meal…" Harry said with a mouthful of pasta.

"It was in New York, we were both skateboarding and Harry caught the eye of a girl…" I began, "I think you know where this is going…" I sighed and everyone started laughing. "Anyway, he waved at her and she waved back… and for Harry this was the perfect distraction from where he was going as he promptly skated and fell into the park's water fountain." The table erupted with laughter again, with Eddie clapping Harry on the back and Mara giggling for the first time.

"Is anyone ready for dessert?" asked Trudy.

"Yeah," everyone sighed.

"I'll bring it in then."

The rest of the meal passed by pretty quickly. Amber kept on going on and on about some Miu Miu shoes she desperately wanted, Alfie kept agreeing with her about how her father was unfair, and nobody else listening to her. "If the essay is due tomorrow… then I'd better finish it tomorrow." Harry said and yawned.

"That attitude will get you nowhere in life." Nina warned teasingly.

"Well, I'm here now, aren't I?" Harry replied cheekily and drunk some lemonade.

"You won't be for much longer, mate." Mick laughed.

"Try telling that to Kayla."

"Hey!"

"We almost got expelled from Midtown." Harry sighed.

"Because you shattered the glass backing of the basketball hoop." I pointed my finger at my brother.

"Hey, you caused a minor chemical explosion in the science lab."

"Actually, Mr Jones said it was a science _experiment _and I was _experimenting._" I retorted, "And _you_ flooded the first floor boys' toilets."

"That was not intended."

"How did you flood them?" Alfie asked.

"Let's just say not in the way you think."

"Has everybody finished? I think I might turn in early." Mara stood up and stretched.

"If by early do you mean studying until one o'clock in the morning?" Joy teased.

"Oh ha ha," Mara replied, "And no, we have a French test tomorrow so I won't." With that Mara left.

"What? We have a French test?" Eddie panicked. "Oh well." he sighed.

"I don't agree with homework," I declared, "It isn't fair because some people have a rare condition where their mind shuts down the moment they leave the school building!" I shouted before Jerome pulled me into a deliberately suffocating hug.

"Very funny." he whispered in my ear.

"I try my best." I replied.


End file.
